TIRUCHY: After witnessing the ONGC carrying out works in the extraction wells in Tiruvarur, farmers and functionaries from various political parties, who claimed that it was a new project, staged a protest and submitted a petition to the Collector on Wednesday to stop the works. The Collector clarified that it was maintenance work in the existing wells and no new exploration activity was allowed.

Sources said that the ONGC established an exploration well at Thiyanapuram in Tiruvarur in 2015 and the officials who came with heavy vehicles started the maintenance work on Tuesday. On seeing this, farmers and political functionaries thought that it was a new project and staged a protest.

On Wednesday, functionaries from Congress, VCK, Makkal Adhikaram and various other outfits met Collector B Gayathri Krishnan and demanded to stop the exploration activity as the region has been declared Protected Special Agricultural Zone. The protesters in the petition mentioned that the ONGC had been initiating to establish new exploration wells in the name of maintenance work. They sought the Collector to instruct the ONGC to withdraw from the spot.

Meanwhile, the Collector issued an order stating that no nod has been given to the ONGC to establish new well/s. She pointed out that there were two oil extraction wells at Thiyanapuram and they were closed in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

However, the ONGC officials have been undertaking the repair works at the VG-34 slot at Thiyanapuram on Tuesday for which they brought heavy vehicles and so the farmers and the public have agitated.

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