Urban News

The Hindu 17.08.2009

Stalin hints at 50 % quota for women in local bodies

Staff Reporter

BARGUR: The State government is contemplating increasing the reservation for women in local bodies from 33 per cent to 50 per cent, M.K. Stalin hinted at a campaign meeting at Majithkothapalli in the Bargur Assembly constituency on Sunday.

He said the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government was implementing various welfare measures for women. It was this government which introduced the Rs.6,000 maternity assistance scheme for the maintenance of pregnant woman and foetus, free education for girls and marriage assistance of Rs.20,000 for poor girls. Mr. Stalin said the DMK could pride itself on the fact that the concept of women self-help groups was started in Thali, a backward area in Krishnagiri District, in 1989 by Mr. Karunanidhi in his earlier stint as Chief Minister. The scheme was started with a view to capacitate women in society to improve their standard of living through various self-employment opportunities.

The ruling DMK is on a winning spree since the 2006 Assembly elections because of its good governance and welfare schemes for the poor and downtrodden. He also cited that the State government’s recently launched ‘Kalaignar Kappeethu Thittam’ for the poor and middle-income people.

Referring to the boycott of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the by-elections in the State, he said people will boycott in future those political parties which are boycotting elections. He said some parties in the AIADMK front were vanishing faster than was expected after the Parliament elections because of their attitudes.

On the third day of his campaigning, he started his tour in Anjur village on the Krishnagiri-Puducherry National Highway. His tour van was followed by convoy of hundreds of vehicles along Naikanur, Nakkalpatti, I. Kothapalli, Majitgollahalli, Ikontham, Thattkkal, Sandhur, Veppalampatti, Valasagoundanur, Pullampatti, Attiyanur, Pandaseemanur, Chakkilnatham and the campaign culminated at Bargur with a public meeting.

The Hindu 17.08.2009

Project to benchmark service level of Tiruchi Corporation

S. Ganesan

TIRUCHI: The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), an international organisation offering technical consultation, training, and information services for capacity building and support to local governments in the implementation of sustainable development, has taken up a project to benchmark the service level of the Tiruchi Corporation.

The benchmarking would be done for four major services of the Corporation – water supply, solid waste management, waste water treatment and storm water drains. The assessment would be carried out in a standardised form in terms of the existing infrastructure, the system of delivery, quality of the service and the percentage of coverage.

Tiruchi is one of the 25 cities selected across the country under the project taken up by the Union Ministry of Urban Development and the Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank. The Udhagamandalam Municipality is the other urban local body selected for the benchmarking in the State.

The ICLEI has been appointed as a consultant for carrying out the benchmarking for both the cities in Tamil Nadu, Soumya Chaturvedula, Manager, ICLEI, South Asia, Southern Centre, told The Hindu, here on Friday.

She along with Ashish Rao Ghorpade, Manager, South Asia, Southern Centre, and C. Sellakrishnan, Project Coordinator, ICLEI, held preliminary discussions with the Mayor S.Sujatha, Commissioner T.T.Balsamy and other officials on Thursday and Friday to discuss the modalities of the collection of data for the project.

The project is expected to be completed over the next few months.