The Hindu             27.11.2013

Municipal staff confiscating pigs face stiff resistance

A.V. Ragunathan

At Vannarapalayam rearers threaten them with spears, knives

The Cuddalore municipal employees, who went about removing pigs from certain areas in the town not only faced resentment but also stiff resistance from those rearing the animals on Tuesday.

The employees caught as many as 28 pigs from areas such as K.K. Nagar, Pudupalayam and Vannarapalayam. But those rearing pigs at Vannarapalayam challenged the civic employees when the later were about to take away the pigs.

Armed with spears and knives they surrounded the employees and refused to let them go.

Suddenly certain persons from the crowd caught hold of two pigs, slaughtered the animals and threw the meat on the road to voice their protest.

Taken aback by such brazen act the civic employees withdrew from the scene and lodged a complaint with the Thevanampattinam police.

Health hazard

When contacted, Municipal Commissioner P. Kalimuthu told The Hindu that following a spate of complaints received by District Collector R. Kirlosh Kumar about the pig menace and the health hazards posed by them, such as brain fever, periodic efforts were being taken to remove the pigs out of the town boundary.

Municipal Health Officer Kumaragurubaran said that since pigs abound in the town, and given their speedy proliferation, raids were being carried out in those areas on a monthly basis. For the purpose of catching the pigs the municipality had engaged trained catchers from Thanjavur. Those pigs caught by them would be taken to Vedaranyam and let into the forest areas. But today the staff unexpectedly came across a violent response from those rearing the pigs.

They were strictly told that if the animals were kept in the sty there would not be any problem, but if the pigs started roaming in the streets they would be caught.

Street dog menace

As for the street dog menace, Dr. Kumaragurubaran said that on an average the civic body was sterilising 5—8 dogs a day. After 45 days of sterilisation the dogs would lose their ferocity and therefore would not pose any threat to the people.

The civic body seems to be toying with the idea of capturing the street dogs and freeing them in far away jungles.

The Hindu             27.11.2013

Coimbatore Corporation to prepare new mobility plan for city

Karthik Madhavan

Sometime next week the Coimbatore Corporation would invite a few government officials, civil society activists, non-government organisations and trade body representatives for a discussion to prepare a comprehensive mobility plan for the city.

The second attempt to address the traffic issues that decelerate the city’s development comes after the Corporation missed the bus after preparing the first comprehensive mobility plan in 2007.

The civic body had prepared the plan engaging a consultant to fulfil obligations under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, sources said.

One of the proposals mooted in the mobility plan was the bus rapid transit system to ease traffic congestion on roads and provide a mass transit project for the city.

The proposal remained on paper as the Ministry of Urban Development asked the Corporation to complete the other JNNURM projects, in the execution of which its performance was below par.

It was also because the then Corporation administration did not accord top priority for providing solutions to transport problems in the city. But cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kochi and even Kozhikode made considerable progress.

A few of those cities completed the first mass transit project and mooted proposal for the second. While the others got the first project moving on the ground, the sources said.

Now the Corporation had got a second chance to prepare a new mobility plan and push for sanction for projects that would find a mention therein, for transport was intricately connected with the city’s development.

Transportation solutions would lead to connectivity and that would result in business development.

Plus, the opportunity for the preparation of a new mobility plan comes when the Corporation had sought from the Ministry the establishment of a urban metropolitan transport authority to provide transport solutions to the city.

It had also sought the creation of an urban transport fund.

The sources suggested that the new mobility plan should look at new areas of growth while trying to decongest areas of stabilisation – meaning, it should look at taking people away from the core business district to new centres of growth, seek to establish new bus terminals as the Ministry norms suggest establishment of a bus terminal for every million population, parking bays, pedestrian and vehicular subways and much more.

The sources added that the civic body should carry out a feasibility study to decide on a mass transit project and based on the study result decide on mono or metro rail.

The choice of the mass transit project should not be decided based on other considerations.