THRISSUR: Agriculture minister V. S. Sunil Kumar lambasted three executive engineers of irrigation department here in public and warned them of suspension along with withholding of pension after they allegedly did not fully dismantle the temporary bund set up at the Enamavu regulator-cum-bridge as directed by the committee headed by the district collector.
With the floodwaters rising in several places, as asked by the local people, the minister along with Manaloor MLA Murali Perunelli visited the site and summoned the three executive engineers to the nearby house where they got the verbal blast on Monday.
"You were asked to break the bund (made by closely erected bamboo post and filled with mud in between), and you only opened it partially. Do you want the people to get drowned? At any cost, the bund needs to be dismantled before sunset today, or you will be suspended," he was seen yelling at them.As almost all the 15 shutters of the regulator have rusted and the temporary bund has been set up annually and dismantled during monsoon.
"The irrigation engineers are hand in glove with the fish farming mafia which wants the bund not to be fully cleared to facilitate floodwater to flow to the sea," AIYF Cherpu president K. K. Shihab alleged.
