The New Indian Express 26.08.2010
Garbage woes of Island South
KOCHI: Island South is one of the smallest divisions under the Corporation. The division is in the general category this time as well. Councillor N Venugopal says that emphasis has been given to development projects to improve the standard of living of the people. “Many activities have been carried out with the intention of solving specific problems. Besides installing SV lamps as street lights across the division, repairing and developing pocket roads and covering the drains with slabs, the division fund was utilised for solving some problems that have been plaguing the area for a long time now. A new public well was dug and is being properly maintained so that whenever the water supply to the area falls short, residents get water from the well. Many public taps were installed by utilising the Corporation’s general fund.” The councillor claims that the electricity problem in the area was solved by installing two new transformers. He says that 65 houses were sanctioned under the Basic Service to the Urban Poor (BSUP) scheme. Sanitation was improved by sanctioning around 190 individual toilets to the houses in the division.“A new open park in the area was developed using the People’s Planning fund and the division fund. It has given a facelift to the division. Tiles will be laid in the park soon. A homoeo dispensary was built in the division using Corporation’s general fund. ` 30 lakh has been sanctioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP). A community hall, homoeo dispensary and an Anganwadi will be built with the money.” Venugopal adds that a crematorium is also in the pipeline. This will be built using the division fund.
Besides developing pocket roads using the division fund and the People’s Plan fund, a new road is being developed using the Corporation’s general fund. The residents at Island South are worried about the poor sanitation facilities in the area. There is also the problem of waste management. Residents fear that over time, there might be ground water contamination due to these problems. The residents are also concerned about their security due to the presence of a large number of migrant labourers in the division.
