PWD executive engineer transferred

He was left with just two months of service and the transfer is seen as a punishment, claimed sources. A PWD higher official said that the transfer had nothing to do with thermocol fiasco and it was part of a mass transfer.

Another official at Madurai district administration explained that only Rs.8,500 was spent for the experimental work. If the experiment had proved successful Rs.10 lakhs would have been spent on the project. However the experimental works to prevent evaporation loss would continue. As part of this exercise plastic and rubber balls would be floated on the water to minimise evaporation lose. 

The official, in a bid to justify the work of the Minister, said that all experiments may not succeed in the first attempt and similarly this experiment too had failed. But it was done in the best of intentions. 

The official quoted a 2006 report of the Central Water Commission Basin Planning and Management Organisation in which thermocol usage to prevent loss of water through evaporation was recommended but in the report it was mentioned that it can be tested only in small water bodies. The officials who were testing it should have tried in small water bodies such as ponds instead of a large dam like Vaigai said the official.