The Hindu          21.11.2014 

Social media platforms to help people voice civic grievances

K. Vijayakarthikeyan

Coimbatore Corporation will explore the possibility of tapping all social media platforms to provide more channels of communication for the public to voice their grievances, said K. Vijayakarthikeyan who assumed office as Corporation Commissioner on Thursday.

He said that the additional channels would be in addition to the existing mechanisms.

K. Vijayakarthikeyan is the third commissioner for the civic body during the current year after Ms.G. Latha was transferred followed by S. Ganesh, who after a brief stint, was posted as Collector for Pudukottai.

Mr. Vijayakarthikeyan passed MBBS in 2009 and took up his civil service examinations. He belongs to the 2011 batch of the Indian Administrative Service.

A native of Madurai, he had earlier served as Assistant Collector (Training) in Erode and then as Sub-Collector in Kovilpatti in Tuticorin District.

Talking to The Hindu , Mr.Vijayakarthikeyan said that the existing system of the public sending their grievances through Short Message Service (SMS) will continue. The Corporation will also explore the options of tapping the other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Whats app and telegram for opening up more channels of communication for the people to express their views. Mr. Vijayakarthikeyan added that his focus will be on taking Government schemes to the people at a faster pace, besides expediting the ongoing development works and commencing new works.

Core focus areas will be drinking water, solid waste management, public health and hygiene, he said.

The Hindu        21.11.2014 

Civic body to take over 1 lakh sq. m. private land, widen roads

Private land along Santhome High Road will be acquired to increase its width —Photo: M. Vedhan

The Chennai Corporation has identified 1.12 lakh sq. m. of private land and a number of notified open spaces along 11 city roads, for widening them.

The Corporation Council on Thursday passed a resolution for denotification of such open spaces to facilitate the work. The preparation of a land plan schedule for the purpose of acquisition has been completed.

The largest extent of private property (25,179 sq. m.) will be acquired along 4.7 km of Arcot Road, for increasing its width to 30.5 metre. Many parks and playgrounds in schools are also likely to be required for the road widening projects.

Work on Santhome High Road will improve its width to 24 metres. Private land on either side of the 1.6-km stretch — which, at present, is 18 metre wide — will be acquired. The 3.2-km-long Sardar Patel Salai will be widened from 20 metre to 30.5 metre, after acquiring 3,286 sq. m. of private land and 18,821 sq. m. of government land.

Vineetha Velayudhan, a long-time resident of ‘Sardar Patel Road, hailed the plan to widen roads, but expressed doubts on its effectiveness. “Even if the move is to ease traffic, nothing will happen without better traffic management. I don’t know if merely widening it is going to help.”

Transfer of development rights is likely to be used to help land owners affected by the project. The other roads to be widened include Nelson Manickam Road, Strahans Road, Perambur Barracks Road, Kaliamman Koil Street, Paper Mills Road and Sembium Red Hills Road.

Taking charge of manhole repair

The Corporation also plans to smooth jagged edges of sewer manholes on roads across the city. Currently, Metrowater has the responsibility of repairing the structures after roads are laid.

However, a number of such works were delayed following re-laying of many roads, causing difficulty to motorists. 

Under the new system, the civic body will include the cost of repair of such manholes during the preparation of estimates for a road project. The decision to change the system follows an audit objection raised on such works done by the Corporation in Teynampet, Kodambakkam and Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar.