Residents object sand lorries

CHENNAI: More than 100 residents and cadres of CPM on Monday stoned seven sand-laden lorries in Melavalam village near Madurantagam, some 80km from Chennai, and broke their windshields. They were protesting against sand mining in the Palar river and also against trucks using the stretch during school hours. The Madurantagam police arrested and remanded eight CPIM cadres including S Umasankar, who led the protest.According to the police, residents and CPM cadres gatheredalong a link road off the Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road, around 11am to stopsand-laden lorries from using the stretch during school hours. However, whenthey stopped a few lorries, the drivers of these vehicles got into an argumentwith the residents."We suffer from the continous flow of lorries onthis stretch that connects many villages with the GST Road. The bitumen getsworn out soon and often result in fatal accidents," said M Velan, a resident ofMelavalam village. Being the lone stretch for thousands of residents in interiorparts of Madurantagam to reach the GST Road, the condition of this link road isimportant for them. However, everday, on an average, more than 1,000 lorriescarrying sand use the stretch.In March this year, officials of theMadurantagam taluk had held a peace meeting between residents of the fiveaffected villages -- Melavalam, Keelavalam, Aryapakkam, Boodhur and Esur -- andlorry owners, and the latter had given an undertaking not to transport sandduring school hours because it resulted in frequentaccidents.