Monday, February 12 2007
NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
CHENNAI: A 16-member cycle rally team, demanding improvement of environmental conditions in Cuddalore, ended its 150-km long journey at Urur Kuppam Temple Square near Besant Nagar on Sunday.
The cyclists resumed their journey from Tindivanam, where they had suspended it in November 2006, after one of the rallyists died in an accident, and took the message to the capital city on Sunday evening.
Members of International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, The Other Media, Cuddalore, the District Consumer Protection Organisation, the Youth for Social Change and the SIPCOT Area Community Environmental Monitoring Committee, organisers of the rally along with film actor Kalai Rani welcomed the rallyists at Urur Kuppam.
“Industrial pollution in SIPCOT, Cuddalore is rising to a dangerous level. People in this region live in horrible environmental conditions and the rally has been organised to appeal to the government to improve the conditions in Cuddalore,” Roopesh Kumar, one of the organisers, said.
The rallyists and other members then presented cultural programmes and skits highlighting the plight of the general public in Cuddalore and Mettur. The environmentalists alleged that the government had been overlooking the pollution issues in SIPCOT and encouraging new polluting units to set up their factories here.
The rallyists, on their way to Chennai, had held public meetings at Tindivanam, Chengalpattu and Kovalam. Students of Vidya Sagar, Besant Nagar, had joined the rallyists before they reached Urur Kuppam. They then organised a solidarity meeting, seeking public help to solve the environmental problems in Cuddalore.