Plea against OPS’ wife in well case disposed

Petitioner, Rengaswamy, from Lakshmipuram in his petition, stated that Lakshmipuram village is located close to Theni and cultivation is carried out at 5,000 acres in the village. There are two wells here for drinking purpose and one of the wells was constructed with public contribution.

The second well was constructed in the land of Vijayalakshmi and even before its construction the villagers had raised concerns about the well that it would drain the water in the common well.

However, the people were promised that if there is any shortage of drinking wa-ter in their village water would be supplied from the well of Vijayalakshmi. But, however, the family of Panneerselvam had used giant motors with a capacity of more than 15 hp and 20 hp to draw water from the well and supplied it to the neighbouring village through giant pipeline though this is against the rules of TNEB.

Meantime, construction of another large well in the dimension of 60 feet by 60 feet had been planned by Panneerselvam family and as the residents of Meenakshipuram protested, the Revenue Department officials had stopped the construction of the well.

Apart from that, as per TNEB rules electricity connection should be given to farm lands located at more than 200 metres from the river but the land of Vijaya-lakshmi is located at just 15 metres away from Varattaru, a rivulet running across Meenakshipuram and hence court should direct TNEB to sever the electricity connection for her land.

When the petition was heard on Wednesday by judges K K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan, defence counsel had submitted the documents to show that the well was transfered to Tamil Nadu government and was registered in the name of Tamil Nadu Governor. The counsel had also assured that Vijayalakshmi would not claim any rights over the land and hand it over to the villagers. Based on the argument of defence counsel, the Judges disposed of the petition.