VELLORE: AIADMK urban district secretary SRK Appu handed over a petition to Collector P Kumaravel Pandian seeking action to ensure proper water supply to all 60 wards in Vellore Corporation, which had been affected due to the local body having pending dues of Rs 11.12 crore to TWAD board.

Revealing this to DT Next, Appu said, “It is outrageous that the town where Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan resides faced water shortage for the last 25 days.” Blaming the Vellore Corporation for poor water management, he requested the Collector to enquire into the matter so that normal water supply was resumed.

However, Vellore Mayor Sujatha Anandakumar refuted Appu’s charges and said, “We are yet to settle TWAD’s bills as they are still to hand over various water scheme related OHTs, which are still under testing. The reason why water supply was stopped in Vellore for over a fortnight was due to PWD constructing a check dam on the Palar at the location where the Hoganekkal water supply line passes and hence we were asked to change the pipeline’s alignment. It was for this that we were forced to stop supply which has been resumed from Wednesday.” TWAD sources concurred with Vellore Mayor’s statement.