Authorities embark on canal cleaning drive

KOCHI: The city will soon assume a clean look as the district administration has embarked on a canal cleaning drive. The 645-kilometre long canals which come under the Periyar valley project will be renovated under this venture. To supervise the working of this initiative, many monitoring committees have been formed at the Panchayat level. Additional district magistrate E K Sujatha has already given instructions to kick off the project at the earliest. The decision came in the wake of a review meeting conducted. “The Periyar valley project has been included under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Decision has been taken to provide uniform rates to the engineers and other workers, under the scheme and the work will start soon,” said P I Sheik Pareeth, district collector.Most of the canals are getting destroyed as many of them are encroached. Besides, dumping of the waste has also become the order of the day. Owing to these reasons, many of the canals are polluted and degraded. The meeting also instructed that the local bodies and the irrigation department to come forth in preserving these canals. So far, the renovation of 400-kilometre long canals have been completed. The reports on renovated canals will be submitted to the Panchayats concerned. The representatives from various Panchayats, who participated in the review meeting, said that every step should be initiated to change the mindset of the people who callously dispose the waste in canals. They also put forth many demands. “Most of the houses, flats and apartments which are in the close proximity to the canals have fixed ducts which  drains off the waste including septic waste to the nearby canal. Measures should be initiated to remove these ducts,” they said. They also demanded that the authorities concerned should conduct proper inspection before giving sanctions to the private parties to undertake any bridge construction. “Measures should be taken to prevent the encroachments of canals,” they added. Panchayat presidents, secretaries and assistant engineers also participated in the review meeting.