After HC order, Karur lake cleared of encroachments

Sources said that a group of individuals encroached approximately one-fourth of the lake at Muthalaipatti near Kulithalai in Karur district spread over an area of 150 acres, and V Nallathambi (45), a social activist, approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court against the trespassers and prayed to retrieve the ‘usurped’ land from them, as it was one of the major source of water, both for general use and irrigation, for several nearby areas in the region locality.

However, on July 29, Nallathambi and his father Veeramalai (70) were murdered by an unidentified gang and the double murder sent shock waves among the social activists and the people across the state. In a follow-up action, the police arrested as many as eight persons in the following days.

Meanwhile, the Madurai High Court Bench that took the suo muto cognisance of the case condemned the officials for not initiating any action to retrieve the waterbody and issued directions to the revenue officials and the Kulithalai DSP to conduct proper investigation into the double murder and remove the encroachments immediately. It also ordered the officials to submit a detailed report by August 14.

Based on the order, the Karur DRO, Suryaprakash, Kulithalai RDO Liyagath, Tahsildhar Senthil and Kuliathai DSP Sukumar inspected the waterbody at Muthalaipatti village. The officials also went through all the details, including the actual size of the waterbody and the encroached areas, during their visit to the disputed site.

On Tuesday, officials, who reached the spot, initiated action to retrieve the 39 acres and deployed 5 earthmovers to clear all the encroachments from the lake. A team of 100 personnel, led by Kulithalai Inspector Mohammed, accompanied the team of officials during the drive. The DRO, RDO and other officials inspected the process.