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

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 23, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Reporter's Diary

ON SATURDAY night, a State-owned bus hit the lamp-post at Bharathy-Vasuki Street Junction near the Sengunthar Higher Secondary School in Erode, causing power failure to hundreds of houses in the area.

Officials of the electricity board erected temporary lamppost on Sunday and restored power supply to some houses. However, electricity would be restored in many places only by Monday in many houses and business establishments as the TNEB did not have sufficient manpower on Sunday.

Such incidents are a regular phenomenon in the area and reported in many other places too. The driver's error had affected over a hundred houses. The public feel that such lampposts erected in street corners and in the middle of the road margins affecting the flow of traffic should be removed. They also request TNEB to attend to such problems immediately. Senior officials of the department should visit such places and monitor restoration work even on Sundays and holidays, they suggest.

* * *

THE DISTRICT administration has been taking numerous steps to improve the peripheral health care system, which has traditionally been weak in Dharmapuri. As a first step, eight postings for doctors in Primary Health Centres have been filled with two doctors available round-the-clock at each centre. The Collector has also been conducting frequent checks at unearthly hours and sending decoys to find out whether doctors were available on call duty. Of the surprise checks conducted at six centres, the Collector was impressed to find doctors at all centres except one.

In Dharmapuri contact numbers of the doctors are being put up on the health centres sparing patients the trouble of running after private doctors and spending huge sums of money on treatment. Yet there was a message for recalcitrant doctors that they could find themselves posted at Glennmorgan which has a population of little above 100 and where people don't fall ill often.

* * *

A JUNCTION at one end of Ooty town is a hub with a heavy concentration of people and vehicles round the year. However, over the years concern has been growing among the locals and regular visitors over the inadequate attention bestowed on its upkeep and development. Highlighting its importance, some of the citizens pointed out that not only did the junction link important roads like the lower bazaar, main bazaar, Ooty Lake, Goods Shed and the Fernhill Roads, but it was also the threshold of the railway station and the race course. While the junction's traffic island was in a pathetic state, the roads were ill maintained. As a result the tourists especially those entering the hill station by the mountain train or by other vehicles from the Karnataka side formed a bad opinion about the state of the town even before they started their holiday.

Adverting to the conspicuous absence of facilities in the area, K. Natarajan, a tour promoter said that among the shortcomings pointed out by the tourists were that there were no banks or post offices nearby. The nearest ATM facility was about two kilometres away and there were no counters to provide information to the tourists. Some others pointed out that the surroundings were unhygienic due to the poor condition of the channel running through the area. The ugly look of the building nearby which housed the office of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board added to the dreariness of the ambience.

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THE TWO-DAY DMK conference exhibited the Salem citizens' taste for the cine culture. Massive fort-like entrance, colourfully decorated entrances and massive pandals were enough to take you to a different world.

Salem, the birthplace of modern cinema, still holds the slim thread that connects it to the tinsel world of yonder past. Modern Theatres from here churned out hundreds of movies. Leading artistes and others who worked in the theatre became celebrities later. The DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, was one among them when he became a popular scriptwriter when his crisp Tamil dialogues in the theatres' film Manthirikumari' a blockbuster of yesteryear created ripples.

His forays into the tinsel world also provided a good opportunity for Mr. Karunanidhi to propagate his views on various social issues. Old timers used to say that Karunanidhi, the AIADMK founder-leader, M. G. Ramachandran and other senior artistes stayed in Salem and worked for the theatre.

Mr. Karunanidhi's association with the cine world was recollected in the speeches of District Secretary, Veerapandi S. Arumugam, and others who spoke at the conference. To recollect the days of past the organisers erected a replica of the arch of Modern Theatres at the conference venue. It was a fitting tribute to a great organisation that contributed much to the development of cinema.

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WAS THE parking fee system good or bad is a question one is tempted to ask oneself seeing the haphazard parking on the Cross-Cut Road in Coimbatore. Complaints of intimidation of vehicle users by employees of the lessees in charge of the parking lots and also of fleecing at some of the lots had led to the abolition of the system.

But, while in force, it helped in bringing about at least a semblance of discipline. Two-wheelers and four-wheelers were never allowed to encroach upon each other's space. Now, with free parking, chaos reigns on this road, especially during weekends. A common sight is that of two-wheelers, either belonging to the public or employees of commercial establishments, usurping the space meant for four-wheelers.

Sometimes, drivers park four-wheelers along the lot meant for two-wheelers when they do not find space on the opposite side. And, there is always this extra line of four-wheelers whose drivers do not park them in the bylanes but are only too keen on reducing motorable space on the road.

Disturbing questions arise when one sees this happening: Must rules be necessarily enforced or can they be followed voluntarily? Or, do we really have to pay (parking fee) and learn discipline?

* * *

(Contributed by

R. Sundaram in Erode,

S. Prasad in Dharmapuri, D. Radhakrishnan in Udhagamandalam,

R. Ilangovan in Salem

& K.V. Prasad in Coimbatore)

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