more-in Residents of Kannan Colony in Chintamani (ward 56), which lies on the banks of the Kiruthumal, are a distressed lot when it rains. A. Veni, a resident of Raghavendra Street, said that her house was filled with knee-deep rainwater. A senior citizen, she said, “My only asset is my house and it was ruined by the rainwater this year.” A majority of the women of Kannan Colony work at ‘appalam’ (papad) companies. The dough for making papad is carefully prepared and shaped into snake-like cylinders. The cylinders later attain different shapes. This dough is laid out under the sun to dry. For all their work, appalam makers earn a meagre ?500 a week. During monsoon, the production is lean. The women usually stock dough. Lack of sunlight means that papads cannot be dried. The loss of income hits them, especially at the end of the month. This year, stagnating rainwater affected houses and portions of appalam companies. Some households lost dough worth ?3,000 and were unable to recover it. The low-lying area was once a hub of activity. S. Chidambaram, a resident, said his grandfather used to bath him in the river but things had changed since factories were set up close to it. Though there was employment to many, it polluted the river, he said. A number of fever cases were reported in this area. The women said that at least one in two houses had children with fever in the past two months, owing to mosquito menace. Corporation officials visited the ward in October when there was rain, said P. K. Sundar, a businessman. The residents protested but officials began work on containing mosquito menace for about three hours in some parts of the area and left. Since this is a recently added ward of the Madurai Corporation, the underground drainage system does not function. The drainage lines are connected to the river. From some houses, drainage water flows into nearby houses. A senior official from the Corporation said that a proposal would be drawn immediately to clean this colony.

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