Power, water supply cut for 22 buildings in Ooty

UDHAGAMANDALAM: In a crack-down on unauthorised constructions in Ooty following a Madras high court directive, officials began disconnecting electricity and water connections to illegal' buildings which have come up in deviation of building rules. Power lines were disconnected for 22 buildings, mostly residential houses, by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board officials on Thursday afternoon.
"Today, we received the first list of 182 illegal buildings from the municipality only in the afternoon. The buildings include few hotels, schools and worship places." AR Siva Kumar, assistant executive engineer, TNEB, told TOI. Five teams of TNEB employees, along with the officials of municipality and police, visited the unauthorised buildings and disconnected electricity supply.
The high court had directed the Ooty Municipal commissioner to furnish the list of 985 illegal constructions to the superintending engineers of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and the Water and Drainage Board on or before April 22. Within three days after the list is handed over, the officials should disconnect electricity and water supply to the buildings, the Court said.
The court has also directed the Ooty Superintendent of police to give necessary assistance to the civic authorities in implementing these directions. LS Girija, Commissioner, Ooty Municipality, said, "We have furnished the first list of unauthorized buildings to TNEB. Also, we have started disconnecting the water supply to the buildings." Disconnecting the water supply to the buildings would be completed by April 25, as per the direction of the court order, she said.
The Taj Savoy hotel, a heritage building prominently featured in the first list of unauthorized buildings. However, R Panneerselvam, finance controller, Taj Savoy, claimed, "We ourselves demolished the unauthorized structure of 5,000 sqft area, once it was pointed out. Subsequently, we approached the municipality for an appraisal and got due acknowledgment too".