The Hindu 13.03.2013
Corporation gives a ‘status quo’ budget bereft of any fresh ideas
Most of the proposals figured in last year’s budget
Replete with customary repetitions of several pending
project proposals, some of them hanging fire for more than a decade, the
Tiruchi City Corporation has failed to come up with a road map for
implementing them in its budget 2013-14.
The civic
body has not made any substantial financial allocation or identified
funding sources for any projects which have been repeated in this year’s
budget.
A classic example is the proposal on establishing an integrated bus stand in the city.
Even after a decade since the proposal was mooted, the corporation is yet to zero in on a site for the bus stand.
The
lack of clarity or direction is apparent as the Budget merely states
that steps are being taken to identify a site for the integrated bus
stand in view of the heavy congestion at the central bus stand. The
AIADMK dispensation at the council is apparently waiting for a direction
from the State government.
Similarly, the civic body has not been able to identify a site for the bus stand proposed in Srirangam.
The
proposal was announced in the last Budget and the corporation had even
made an allocation of Rs. 9 crore then. No financial allocation, not
even a token sum, has been earmarked for both proposals in the budget
2013-14.
The civic body’s move to revive the proposal
on establishing a water theme park, originally mooted by the former
Mayor Sarubala R. Tondaiman of the Congress nearly 10 years ago, is
bound to be viewed with scepticism. The corporation has proposed the
park on a 15-acre site at Panchapur, where it has a massive sewage
treatment facility. Here again no financial commitment has been made.
Civic
activists have been critical of the move. N. Ramakrishnan, coordinator,
Welfare Organisations of Tiruchi, questions the suitability of the site
as Panchapur is already facing heavy pollution owing to the sewage
farm.
The Cauvery bank is ideally suited for a theme park, he says.
A
section of the former councillors question the viability of the
project. The initiative had failed to take off despite Ms. Tondaiman’s
attempts during her two successive tenures, they point out.
Another
proposal announced last year that has failed to take off so far is a
move to build multi-level parking lot at Gandhi Market. The existing
toilet complex, two-wheeler parking lot, and some of the retail and
wholesale shops near the Diamond Jubilee building in front of the Gandhi
Market was planned to be demolished to build the new complex at an
investment of Rs. 15 crore. It would house a food court, cloak room,
indoor sports amenities, modern toilet, and a multi-storey parking lot.
But now the corporation says it will seek government assistance for
building the complex.
Proposals on construction of a commercial complex at Thillai Nagar market is an old proposal languishing for want of capital.
The
corporation has now proposed a new complex near the truck parking lot
on Madurai Road this year, without making any financial commitment.
A
waste-to-power project, shifting of the wholesale sections of the
Gandhi Market, construction of an office-cum-commercial complex at
Sengulam Colony and establishment of a modern fish market at Puthur have
all found mention in one or more budgets over the past few years but
have not seen the light of the day so far.