The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Reporter's Diary

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Reporter's Diary

AFTER THE tragedy at a primary school in Kumbakonam that claimed the lives of over 90 children, people wish no such tragedy recurs. But in Erode, vans of some private matriculation schools pose a threat to the lives of schoolchildren.

Vans, of schools themselves or hired, are driven very fast, much to the apprehension of the public and parents. The drivers cover the about-seven-kilometre stretch to the school within ten minutes. In addition, latest film songs are played in the van. Similarly, autorickshaws carry too many children and play music. The public feel that the police and the education department should instruct van drivers not to drive recklessly and instruct autos to carry only limited students. The tape recorders should be removed as it could divert the concentration of the drivers. Prevention is better than cure.

* * *

ON SATURDAY, at the Sanchar Sarathy awards function of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, one of the awardees, a telecom mechanic, was commended for preventing damage to telecom lines and inconvenience to subscribers. The damage, it was said, was one that could have been caused when another agency dug up roads to lay drainage or water lines or even while re-laying roads. Though not mentioned in the tone of a complaint, similar damage to water and sewer lines or even the roads in the past had been blamed on laying of telephone cables. Now, the question that crossed one's mind was whether the co-ordination committees in these organisations continued to exist. At least during the last few years, the flurry of activity by various departments with little co-ordination to avoid damage to roads and lines only led to the suspicion that the committees had gone into hibernation. When questioned by presspersons over the existence of the committees, the BSNL officials reacted quickly to say that the committee was active in their organisation. It is not hard to assume that similar answers will come from other establishments such as the civic body, the highways department or the water supply and drainage authority. But, claims of close co-ordination are only rejected by the ground reality. Damaged roads, trenches haphazardly closed after being dug for laying cables, leaks in drinking water lines and also damaged phone lines point to poor co-ordination. When the World Bank identified Coimbatore city for implementing a City Corporate Plan in late 1998, it stressed elimination of multiple agency controls over various services in a particular city. Apparently, this was stressed only after realising that the co-ordination committees function in total estrangement from each other.

Now, the widespread feeling is that it is left to individual employees of the departments concerned, as in the case of the Sanchar Sarathy awardee, to personally ensure that development works by one department do not disrupt the services of another.

(By R. Sundaram in Erode & K.V.Prasad in Coimbatore.)

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News Update

Stories in this Section

Some schools act fast in Coimbatore

Post-harvest tech centre at TNAU