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Tamil Nadu News Papers

Beautification of Coimbatore for Tamil conference begins

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 04:36
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The Hindu 19.01.2010

Beautification of Coimbatore for Tamil conference begins

Special Correspondent

Corporation launches Rs. 4.15-crore project

— Photos: S. Siva Saravanan and Special Arrangement.

OFF TO A START: (Left) Coimbatore Mayor R. Venkatachalam (third left) and Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra (second left) launching on Monday the works to beautify Coimbatore in view of the World Classical Tamil Conference. (Right) An image of the roadside park and pedestrian pavement that will come up under the beautification scheme.

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation launched on Monday a Rs. 4.15 crore project to create roadside parks and lay pavements for pedestrians at 21 places as part of efforts to beautify the city before the World Classical Tamil Conference in June this year.

Mayor R. Venkatachalam, Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra and Deputy Mayor N. Karthik launched the works.

Footpaths

The Mayor said many areas in the city did not have good footpaths and pedestrians faced the risk of getting hit by vehicles.

He cited the case of Dr. Nanjappa Road that had heavy traffic.

Apart from town bus services, buses to Salem, Tiruchi and Madurai took this stretch from Avanashi Road to reach the Central Bus Stand.

This would be among five to six main roads that would be provided with good pavements.

The Mayor said as many green spaces as possible would be created before the conference. South Zone Chairman P. Pynthamil Pari provided an image of a pavement and roadside park that would come up in his zone.

As many as 15 important locations, including junctions, would have parks.

The parks and pavements would be among a slew of measures that the Corporation was embarking upon to showcase Coimbatore as a clean and green city during the conference.

Slum-free city

The image-building exercise also included a project to create a slum-free city.

Recently, the State Government allocated Rs.26 crore to widen and relay 71 roads in the city before the conference.

Official sources said most of the works being taken up now were aimed at improving the infrastructure facilities in the city, mainly the roads, so that traffic bottlenecks did not crop up during the conference.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 January 2010 04:38
 

Street vendors plan demonstrations

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 04:26
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The Hindu 19.01.2010

Street vendors plan demonstrations

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: Members of the National Association of Street Vendors of India plan to hold protest demonstrations on Wednesday demanding implementation of the National Policy Urban Street Vendors 2009.

Addressing mediapersons here on Monday, member of National Executive Committee V. Mageshvaran said the Prime Minister had written letters to all Chief Ministers in August last year to implement the policy, take steps for reservation of space for street vending and execute government welfare schemes for street vendors. However, the policy is yet to be implemented in Tamil Nadu.

The State government is also yet to establish a welfare board for petty shop-owners and street vendors, which was announced last year, he said.

Association coordinator Y. Aruldoss said that the policy mandates that a zone vending committee must be set up and vending zones must be demarcated in development plan.

It also demands that vendors be provided identity cards and registration system be launched for street vending.

There are nearly two lakh street vendors in the city. Only some of the vendors who are evicted from their existing vending space are allotted alternative space, he said.

The demonstration would be held in the Corporations across the State on Wednesday.

In Chennai, it would be conducted near Memorial Hall.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 January 2010 04:27
 

100 tonnes of garbage cleared from Chennai beaches

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 04:21
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The Hindu 19.01.2010

100 tonnes of garbage cleared from Chennai beaches

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

CHENNAI: People who visited the beaches of Chennai on Saturday to celebrate ‘Kaanum Pongal’ left more than 100 tonnes of garbage on the sands.

Conservancy workers found it tough to cope with the piling up of garbage and keep the beach clean on Saturday as visitors kept littering the area.

More than 125 conservancy workers of the Chennai Corporation and Neel Metal Fanalca worked the whole night to clean the beaches, including Marina and Elliots, as the number of visitors increased considerably, according to officials.

P. Jyothi Raj, one of the workers said, “Even as we were removing garbage people were continuing to litter the beach. We had to work from the evening of ‘Kaanum Pongal’ till 4 a.m. on Sunday to clean the area under the guidance of officials.”

People continued their celebrations till midnight and continued to throw plastic bottles, spoons and polythene bags, he said.

Cleaning of the beach would have been easier if more people had used the waste bins, said Mr. Raj.

Around 15 compactor bins and 25 collection bins were used to collect waste but people were reluctant to use the bins for disposal of waste, said an official.

Most people seemed to have forgotten the ban on plastics on the Marina and more than three tonnes of plastic waste was collected on Saturday, he added.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 January 2010 04:22
 
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