The Hindu             10.02.2014 

11 multipurpose service centres to come up in city

Special Correspondent

The Tiruchirapalli City Corporation will set up 11 multipurpose service centres across the city to provide guidance and training to community groups in maintaining public toilets, Corporation Commissioner V.P.Thandapani said here on Saturday.

Speaking at a consultative meeting to discuss the civic body’s move to form 400 community groups vested with the task of maintaining public toilets, Mr.Thandapani said a service centre will be set up for every six wards. The community groups will maintain 395 public toilets with the support and guidance of voluntary organisations.

Stating that the corporation was committed to eradicating open defecation by 2015 within the city limits, Mr.Thandapani said the civic body has decided to pay the electricity charges incurred for lighting the public toilets from its general funds. Similarly, disinfectants and other necessary equipment will be provided to the groups.

A radius of 250 metres around each public toilet would be treated as no open defecation zone and those violating it would be liable for penalties.

The 400 community groups which are to be formed by integrating the women’s self help groups functioning in the city and beneficiaries would also be involved in maintenance of other public assets such as parks, running Aavin kiosks at the park, collection of garbage from apartments and other services, he said.

The Hindu             10.02.2014

Tambaram’s Gandhi Park set for green makeover

One of the oldest landmarks in Tambaram municipal limits, the sprawling Gandhi Park in East Tambaram, is set for a new look soon.

Walkers’ pathway and cascades apart, the park will get its central library back.

After being left neglected, despite a facelift some years ago, the park is now closed for renovation work. A senior official from the municipal administration and water supply department told The Hindu a tender has been floated to the tune of Rs. 23 lakh to complete the renovation.

Already, a nine-feet-wide walkers’ path, with lights, is ready. A sum of Rs. 50 lakh has been spent on various kinds of infrastructural work inside the park.

The new work schedule includes planting of ornamental plants and installation of a couple of cascades. The park will be ready for public use in a couple of months, said the official.

A library building, in the central portion of the park, has been built at a cost of Rs. 26 lakh. “The earlier library was inaugurated by Lourdammal Simon, the then local administration minister, in 1957. The new facility will provide users with more space and lot of study materials,” said V. Nagarajan, a senior citizen from Kambar Street, East Tambaram.

The single-storey building will be able to accommodate more than 50 readers at a time and will have 30,000 books and magazines.

Over the past year or so, the local body has attached a lot of importance to development of parks that have been neglected for many years, the official said. Improvement works are going on in a few parks and more such open spaces will be developed, he said.

Besides carrying out improvement work, the municipal administration should ensure the park is maintained properly, residents said. The timings should be regulated.

The park should be open only for a few hours in the morning and evening and should be kept locked the rest of the day, they said.