The Hindu                31.05.2013

Shops to come up at Shastri Maidan

Civic body is constructing 280 shops to boost revenue in city.

Coimbatore Corporation is constructing 40 shops, each
measuring 320 sq.ft., at Shastri Maidan. It had prepared two estimates
for the shops. The total expenditure for the same is a little over Rs. 1
crore.

The civic body has tabled a resolution before the AIADMK-majority Council, which passed the same with very little debate.

The
explanation offered for constructing shops in the Maidan was that the
Corporation need to augment its revenue. R.S. Puram being a prime
commercial area, the shops there would fetch revenue. The civic body was
constructing around 280 shops across the city for this purpose.

According to estimates, the Corporation planned to boost its revenue by Rs. 2.80 crore a year from the shops.

Sources
within the ruling AIADMK said that the Corporation constructing shops
on the playground — where hundreds of children spent hours during
weekends and holidays — for commercial gain could not be digested. It
had got its priorities wrong — revenue over public welfare.

The Corporation Committee on Education, Parks and Playground that functioned between 2006 and 2011 was also of the same opinion.

It
passed a resolution saying that the Corporation should not let out the
playground even on rent for circuses or fairs, which for days together
deprived students of play area. But now the Corporation had chosen to
erect permanent structures and that too well within the playground and
this has caused consternation.

Sources in the know of
the developments pointed out the previous Council evicting a tennis
academy that was functioning illegally within Shastri Maidan to
highlight the contrast that this time, though, the civic body itself had
become the encroacher.

Who would bell the cat, the
sources asked. They pointed out that the Corporation was constructing
such shops at school grounds, school campuses in R.S. Puram and also
other parts of the city.

A member of the present
Committee on Education, Parks and Playgrounds said she was surprised to
know that the Corporation was constructing shops on the Maidan. Deputy
Commissioner Coimbatore Corporation S. Sivarasu said that the civic body
had not taken away what rightfully belonged to the children.

It
was only on the southern side that the Corporation had utilised a
portion of the land. This would in no way prevent children from
utilising the ground to the fullest extent.