Farmers parting with land for ring road to get alternative sites

Earlier on Wednesday, when Raman, accompanied by DRO J Parthiban and other officials, inspected he the proposed location for the ring road near Poigai, about 20 km from Vellore town, villagers gathered at the spot and expressed their objection to the acquisition of their lands, which was their livelihood. The villagers suggested that the existing road from Oosur via Pudur, Puthur, Narasingapuram and Nattarmangalam be expanded into a four-lane without acquiring their land.

It may be recalled that residents of various villages near the proposed ring road site had petitioned the Collector against acquisition of their lands for the project during the grievance day meeting at the Collectorate on Monday last.

Sources said that officials were going slow on this long pending project as they did not want to have a repeat of the protests against the Rs10,000-crore Salem-Chennai green corridor project, when officials moved to survey and measure the land and plant boundary stones in Tiruvannamalai district’s Chengam taluk.

Though similar work was started for this project, officials did not give a direct reply when locals insisted to desist from measuring the land or planting boundary stones.