Vellore town inundated, but nothing flowed into Otteri Lake

The lake, surrounded by hills on all four sides, has cows grazing amid a lush growth of weeds, with the water supply head works in the middle. 

Leading the onslaught for action is VIT chancellor G Viswanathan, who wondered, “Why officials failed to do the needful by removing encroachments and deepening the lake in the last two years when the area had no rains.” 

The Otteri lake is a British era facility, where excess water from it flows to the Vellore Fort’s moat through the Nicholson channel and then on to Surya Kulam. 

The latter has now vanished due to encroachments. The lake gets water from the surrounding hills, even those tributaries have been encroached upon said Anaicut DMK MLA AP Nandakumar. The MLA who, at the exhortation of the residents, visited the dry lake a couple of days ago told this reporter, “I have asked Vellore Corporation officials to talk and act on encroachments.” 

It may be recalled that when media reported that an AIADMK deputy mayor Dharmallingam, encroached on the lake, he was ordered by the then CM Jayalalithaa to vacate the area and he did so grudgingly. 

Whether the same tactic will work with the present case needs to be seen.