Urban News

Source : The Hindu Date : 18.06.2009

Rs.52-lakh plan for Coimbatore park

Special Correspondent

COIMBATORE: The city’s only major recreation centre – the V.O.C. Park – may have quite a number of improvements made to it in the next few months.

One of the major measures is to make the toy train safe for use, Coimbatore Corporation’ South Zone Chairman P. Pynthamil said after an inspection of the park on Wednesday along with officials of the civic body.

Attributing the condition of the park to poor maintenance, Mr. Pari said he had provided Rs.1.5 lakh from the zone’s funds to carry out repairs to all the three coaches of the train.

“But, we are not happy with the work. A crack was noticed on the rails on Tuesday evening and that was why we carried out an inspection on Wednesday,” he said.

“The curve of the track is dangerous at 15 degrees. As per the norms of the railways, it should be 45 degrees,” Mr. Pari said. The toy train goes around a 70 cent space, out of the three to four-acre park.

The park was created 20 years ago with the train and rails sponsored by a Lions Club. The maintenance was done by the Corporation. “But, the people who got the contract for maintenance had not done it properly,” he said.

After the inspection on Wednesday, it was decided to carry out improvements to the toy train and also other facilities in the park at Rs. 42 lakh.

Then, Rural Industries Minister Pongalur N. Palanisamy, representing the Coimbatore East Assembly Constituency, sanctioned Rs.10 lakh from the MLA’s Constituency Development Fund.

Mr. Pari said the Minister sanctioned the amount by observing that this was the only recreation centre in the city for children.

He wanted shelters put up for them and characters from animation films be painted on the train’s compartments.

“We aim to complete the works in four months from now,” Mr. Pari said.

Source : The Hindu Date : 18.06.2009

Corporates urged to help revive Chennai Corporation-run schools

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), southern region, has urged corporates to help revive the 30 Chennai Corporation schools that were merged with schools nearby run by the civic body recently.

The Corporation had decided to merge the 30 schools in view of the steadily dwindling classroom strength.

The civic body runs 313 schools – 139 primary, 109 middle, 38 high and 27 higher secondary schools.

With the merger, the number has come down to 283.

Noting that the schools that were merged included Corporation schools in Chintadripet, Thousand Lights, Chamiers Road and T. Nagar, the CII noted that school education was an area where corporate houses, which are actively engaged in various Corporate Social Responsibility projects, could bring quality and value to.

“Their (corporates) support to the government schools can improve the quality of education to the children and thereby create more takers,” the CII stated.

Seeking industry’s intervention on the school education front, the CII urged corporates to adopt corporation schools and arrange special lectures for children that would further value-based education.

Such measures would achieve the twin goals of sustaining Corporation schools that cater to the educational needs of the underprivileged and grooming value-sensitive students, the CII said.

When contacted, Corporation Commissioner-in-charge Ashish Chatterjee said that the merger decision was a purely administrative one.

The rationale was to allow students of the smaller schools to access better facilities and several newly introduced extra-curricular activities that were introduced at the larger institutions in their vicinity.

“Reconsider closure”

The north Chennai district committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has urged the Chennai Corporation to reconsider its decision to close down 30 of its schools.

A press release from the north Chennai district secretary T.K. Shanmugam said the move would endanger the future of education in the city.

Instead, the Corporation should improve the student strength by increasing allocation for education, appointing adequate number of teachers and improving basic infrastructure in schools, he added.