The Hindu                     13.04.2013

Training for members of local bodies

Staff Reporter

Special training programme for representatives of local bodies will held in the following areas to enlighten them on Chief Minister’s special life insurance scheme and enable them to take the scheme to maximum beneficiaries in their areas: Andipatti union (April 13), K. Mayiladumparai union (April 15), Periakulam (April 17), Theni union (April 22), Bodinayakkanur union (April 23), Chinnamanur union (April 25), Uthamapalayam union (April 29), and Cumbum union (April 30).

Collector K.S. Palanisamy appealed to presidents in village panchayats and panchayat unions, chairmen in municipalities and town panchayats, ward members and councillors to take part in the programme without fail and to create awareness among people in their respective areas, he added.

A total of 3,082 persons were benefited through this scheme and the government had spent Rs.4.40 crore to foot their medical expenses.

The Hindu                       12.04.2013

Poor maintenance destroys mobile urinals

In the run up to the World Classical Tamil Conference, held here in June 2010, the Coimbatore Corporation purchased mobile urinals to be placed at the conference venue.

It bought 10 urinals at about Rs. 65,000 a piece.

It bought 60 mobile toilets too.

At the end of the conference, the Corporation passed a resolution suggesting that it could rent out the toilets and thereby earn income.

A few months later, when the Tiruvannamalai district administration sought to purchase 20 of the toilets, the Corporation accepted the same.

Of the remaining 40 mobile toilets, the Corporation installed 25 at public places and retained 15 to be let on rent.

Since then the Corporation has been regularly letting out the toilets on rent.

The Corporation sources said that it had installed the toilets near the Coimbatore Railway Junction, near the Regional Transport Office on Balasundaram Road, near the Ukkadam Bus Stand, near the Peelamedu Bus Stop on Avinashi Road and a few other places.

Contract

The civic body also let on contract the maintenance of the urinals.

The job of the contractor was to fill the water tanks and clean the urinals, which the civic body had placed above manholes to facilitate easy discharge of the waste.

Two years later, almost all the 10 urinals are at the Coimbatore Corporation premises, rusted, damaged and in unusable state. In short, the urinals are part of scrap waiting to be disposed.

The sources said that the iron frames that held together the base rusted because of repeated exposure to water and came apart.

As a result the stone that formed the base and rested on the iron frame fell to the ground.

There was no way the Corporation could have left the urinals on the roads because they were no longer in use and had turned a hindrance for the people.

A. Nandhakumar, Councillor (Ward 52), said that the Corporation could have better maintained the urinals, which were of great use to the people.

He said that the Tambaram Municipality had found it so successful it had purchased similar urinals.