Urban News

Deccan Chronicle 04.09.2009

Concrete jungle gobbles up green

Chennai, Sept. 2: The green cover in Chennai is shrinking due to urbanisation and development projects.

According to environmentalists, open space has come down by 60.2 per cent which means greenery is slowly vanishing as industrialisation, including the one caused by software industry’s demand for space, is slowly gobbling up lung space.

“Chennai city has only about two percent of the area as declared parks. In Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA), the declared forest cover is about 24 sq kms, which is about 2 per cent of the CMA,” says the second master plan of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. There are only 20,000 healthy trees within the Chennai corporation limit.

Forest officials and environmentalists say the green cover has shrunk in the last 35 years. “Earlier, trees were felled to promote real estate within the city. Now, it is repeated in all the suburbs where urban development is happening very fast. Trees become the first casualties when it comes to road expansion and other development projects,” say environmentalists.

“The tree cover in the city is inadequate and has to be enhanced by at least another 50 per cent. This will help us address several environmental issues, including pollution and rising temperature levels,” say forest department officials who are also working towards increasing the green cover.

According to them, awareness levels among Chennaiites to save trees and promote greenery are very low. “It is very pathetic. Every resident of the city should take the responsibility of promoting greenery. None of us do it,” Ms Shobha Menon, a trustee of Nizhal, an NGO that speaks for trees, says.

Every normal adult in the city would require about 1,30,000 litres of oxygen every year and two healthy trees can provide this. So, for a city of six million people, the green cover has to be definitely improved and this is not just in the hands of the government.

The Hindu 02.09.2009

Tiruchi Corporation likely to get Rs.1,500 cr.

Special Correspondent

Photo: M. Moorthy

ACCESSIBLE: Transport Minister K.N. Nehru receiving petitions from the residents during the ‘Makkalai Thedi’ camp held in Tiruchi on Tuesday. —

TIRUCHI: The Tiruchi Corporation is likely to get Rs.1,000 to Rs.1,500 crore of financial assistance from the Union Government under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Transport Minister K. N. Nehru said here on Tuesday.

Consequent to the Centre’s decision to relax the population norm for cities for inclusion under the JNNURM, proposals for various development projects in the city, totally valued at around Rs.4,500 crore, have been forwarded to the government.

Major projects

Major development projects such as integrated bus stand, market complexes and housing for the poor are planned under JNNURM, Mr. Nehru said speaking at a ‘Makkalai Thedi’ - grievance redressal camp in the city.

This apart, the Corporation was also likely to get a subsidy-cum-loan of about Rs.100 crore through the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure and Financial Services Limited for strengthening the road and storm water drainage networks of the city.

Drinking water scheme

The drinking water augmentation scheme for the city, currently under execution, would double the quantum of water supplied to the city to 180 million litres a day.

The city was expected to get supply from the scheme in about 10 months.

Mr. Nehru disclosed that 20,944 petitions have been received at the 10 Makkalai Thedi camps held in the city so far.

Of this, action has been intiated on 4,041 petitions.

About 8,855 persons had sought free house site pattas and steps were being taken to identify the required land on the outskirts of the city for allotment to the petitioners.

Adhere to norms

Collector T. Soundiah appealed to the petitioners to adhere to the norms stipulated for availing various benefits.

Nearly 4,000 petitions at the Makkalai Thedi camps have been rejected so far as the petitioners failed to meet the norm or application requirements.

For new ration cards, newly married petitioners should produce proof of having their names deleted from their previous family cards.

For old age pension, the age of petitioners as given in the ration cards alone would be taken as proof, he said and appealed to the residents to enrol themselves in the welfare boards set up by the government for availing various benefits. Mayor S. Sujatha, Deputy Mayor M. Anbazhagan and others spoke.

Later, Mr. Nehru distributed welfare assistance to petitioners of the previous Makkalai Thedi camp.