Kerala - Palakkad   

Political instability, bane of Palakkad town

G. Prabhakaran

Development plan approved in 1986 yet to be completed

PALAKKAD: Political instability in the municipality, one of the oldest and cash-rich civic bodies in the State, seems to have affected the development of the town.

The fast-growing town, the main gateway to Kerala, is linked to major cities in the State and Tamil Nadu by railway and National and State highways.

The political instability had started as early as 1954 when the lone Communist-backed councillor, A.R. Menon, became municipal chairman despite the Congress winning 23 of the 24 seats. The old-timers here cite infighting in the Congress as one of the main reasons for the problem.

The situation aggravated in 1991 after the death of the then municipal chairman, N.A.M. Kareem, of the Congress. Though the party had 19 of the 36 seats, its candidate, Dominic Presentation, was defeated by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) candidate, M.S. Gopalakrishnan, in the election of chairman.

In the next elections, though the Congress got a majority, the CPI(M) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as dominant forces in the municipal council. Following infighting, two Congress chairpersons had to quit.

In the recent elections, the Congress was relegated to the third position, winning just 16 of the 50 seats. The BJP's tally rose to 17 from the previous nine, and the LDF won 16 and the Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K) one.

Development plan

A Rs. 210-crore development plan for the town was approved in 1986. The project was given sanction by the State Government. Under it, 29 bypass roads were planned to ease traffic congestion in the town. A few of them were taken up, but most remain incomplete owing to lack of funds.

Bus stands were planned at Kalvakulam and Olavakkode under the project. Though the work on the Kalvakulam facility was started three years ago, the project is facing many hurdles. The plan for a stand at Olavakkode was dropped by the outgoing council, and the land acquired for it returned to its earlier owner. There were allegations of corruption in this deal. The net result is that an urgently required bus stand has been lost.

The development plan has stressed the need for a traffic network. At the instance of the Palakkad Development Authority, the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) prepared a traffic management plan for the town in November 1984. This included a traffic regulation and management scheme for immediate traffic improvement and a short-term scheme for junction improvement.

Some of these measures were implemented, but many others have not been taken up till now. The management plan said: "The existing transportation network is handicapped with narrow width of roads in the town centre, and road intersections turning into traffic bottlenecks. The need for an improvement programme for the road system of Palakkad was realised years before and many attempts were made in this direction. But many of these proposals could not be implemented, lack of funds being the major lacuna."

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