The Hindu            09.11.2013

Urban infrastructure has improved: Mayor

The present Corporation council has improved urban
infrastructure and municipal governance in spite of the financial
constraints and acute shortage of staff in the civic body, Mayor A.K.
Premajam has said.

In an interview to 
The Hindu
 here on Friday, Prof. Premajam, who completed three years in office,
said that the Corporation had gone through a period of uncertainty but
“we went ahead with the development initiatives.”

The
transfer of officials from the Corporation to the Calicut Development
Authority after its revival last year had almost left the engineering
department void. No posts have been filled till now.

“The
Vigilance cases registered against Corporation officials have been done
with ulterior moves for blocking development activities in the city. It
had a demoralising effect on us but that did not stop us from
implementing the planned schemes,” Prof. Premajam, who had served as
Mayor during 1995-98, said.

Anganwadis

She
said the Corporation’s major achievement was setting up anganwadis
under the Integrated Child Development Scheme for the economically and
socially backward families. Twenty-three anganwadis had been constructed
and another 22 were being constructed. LPG connection and pressure
cookers had been provided in all the 538 anganwadis in the city.
Uniforms would be introduced for the children shortly.

Value-based
education had been the main concern of the council. Eighteen projects
had been introduced this fiscal. One of them was counselling programmes
for adolescents, she added.

Waste treatment

The
council had planned to set up an advanced solid waste treatment plant
at the trenching ground at Njeliyanparamba and a modern abattoir at
Kothi. Measures had been taken for decentralising solid waste management
in all wards. Pipe composting and vermicompost had already begun.
Subsidy would be given to households for adopting bio-gas plants.  

Prof.
Premajam said the council established an art gallery at the cost of
Rs.2 crore near Town Hall. A cultural centre at Anakkulam was in the
final stages of completion. This would be beneficial to drama artistes
for conducting rehearsals and seminars.

A working
women’s hostel at Mankkavu was on the anvil. Tenders for the project
would be called soon. Parking-cum-shopping plazas at Meenchanda and at
Medical College were other major projects envisaged for the city.

The
Mayor said that work on the stadiums for the National Games was
progressing apace. The Corporation contributed 45 per cent of the cost.
The remaining was shared by the National Games Secretariat. The existing
pavilion of the E.M.S. Corporation stadium would be restructured. A new
parking complex, which could accommodate 600 cars and 700 two-wheelers,
would be built, she said.

Rehabilitation

The
rehabilitation package for the Kalluthankkadu slum dwellers was on the
top agenda of the council. The construction of the wholesale vegetable
market and flats for the residents will begin this month.

Plans
were afoot to construct a new office complex on the eastern side of the
existing Corporation office as part of the golden jubilee celebrations
of the civic body. “Most of the mega projects will be implemented in the
next two years,” Prof. Premajam added.