School sweeper who helped avert tragedy honoured

Nagapattinam district administration today honoured the sweeper of a primary school in the district, who helped avert a major tragedy by identifying contamination of herbicide in drinking water.
On January 25, unidentified miscreants had mixed herbicides and rat poison in the overhead water tank of government primary school at North Maruthur village near Vedaranyam.
The sweeper Nagammal had noticed that the water had turned pale white with an unpleasant odour and immediately alerted the head master Vadivel, who in turn, informed the Kariyapattinam police.
The police rushed to the spot and found empty containers of chloracetanilide herbicide and rat poison near the water tank.

A holiday was declared to the school and the children were sent back home that day. Timely identification by Nagammal had helped avert a major tragedy.
The school's parents-teachers association had honoured her during the Republic Day celebrations.
Collector C Sureshkumar had invited Nagammal to the Collectorate today and appreciated her timely intervention, which helped save lives.