THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The district administration, which had halted the desilting work at Kariyilthodu on account of Aruvikkara byelection in June, is yet to resume the work on the flood mitigation work.
The two-century old Kariyilthodu, which runs eight kilometres through wards like Amblathara, Kamaleswaram and Muttathara, is situated parallel to Parvati Puthanar and ease the flooding in the low-lying areas.
After hardly four days of anti- encroachment drive and desiltation that started some time ago, the work which was brought under the banner of Operation Anantha was stopped due to technical reasons.
“With walled residential plots lining both sides of the huge floating pond, dunes could not proceed for many hundred metres of the canal that remain clogged. Water recedes at a slow pace,” said Raveendranath, a resident of Muttathara.
“We need to think of other machinery or demolish compound walls to continue the project. However, there are issues involved as the properties situated on either side have proper title deeds,” said an official who supervised the work at Kariyilthodu.
As per Kamaleswaram ward councillor M.B. Resmi, the cleaning of Kariyilthodu was unlikely to elicit results unless many small drains that open into Kariyilthodu are widened or reclaimed from encroachers.
