Thiruvananthapuram: Giving further impetus to the mission to rejuvenate Thettiyar stream, the revenue department has decided to launch a survey to identify encroachments on the banks of the stream by October. The mission, which has focused so far on areas in and around Kazhakoottam, is expanding and will cover the entire stretch from its two sources at Anathazhchira and Peroor till the point where it meets the Akkulam Lake.A recent meeting convened by tourism minister and local MLA Kadakampally Surendran decided to launch a slew of activities from the Gandhi Jayanthi Day (October 2) aimed at rejuvenating Thettiyar. These include identifying and blocking sources of pollution and to undertake various cleaning activities. A multidisciplinary team comprising representatives from city corporation and irrigation, revenue and police departments have been constituted. A preliminary cleaning will be held on Gandhi Jayanthi.Sources close to the minister said that the government was not planning a forceful eviction of encroachers. “The works will be executed with full co-operation of the public. There won’t be any forceful eviction. People will be issued notices and enough time will be given,” officials said.Maju Balakrishnan, executive engineer, minor Irrigation, said that a core committee with the minister as chairman and district collector as general convener had been constituted. “It has representatives of various fields including College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) and various NGOs which works for the rejuvenation of Thettiyar. The core committee will prepare a detailed project report for the works, which will be finalized after an expert-level scrutiny,” he said.The students of CET have conducted a pilot study in the 200 metre stretch in Thettiyar to identify sources of pollution and to analyse the level of pollution. The CET students will continue their studies in the remaining stretches. In the meantime, the health wing of the city corporation will conduct inspections in all high-rise buildings and commercial establishments on the banks of Thettiyar to check whether they are following norms to manage sewage in its premises.The mission to rejuvenate Thettiyar has been planning a slew of awareness programmes in all the eight corporation wards and Pothencode block. Local-level committees will be attended by officials from irrigation department, police, NGOs, PTA of local schools etc.Irrigation officials said that the sources of Thettiyar begin from Anathazhchira and Peroor and it joins at Moonnattumukku near Kazhakoottam. “In earlier days, the stream had enough buffer zones in the paddy fields in Kazhakootam which are now occupied by the Technopark,” the officials said.The Thettiyar rejuvenation scheme was launched by people’s collective Thettiyar Sahajeevan Swaraj (TSS). The project got a boost after tourism minister Kadakampalli Surendran took it up. Recently the minister had convened a meeting of CEOs of Technopark and sought their financial and technical support. The techies are expected to take a pledge for the protection of Thettiyar on Chingam 1.

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