Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 27, 2007
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 ePaper |
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Tamil Nadu
KULITHALAI: The public, devotees and village heads around Kulithalai have strongly come out against the municipality’s efforts to gain ‘undue advantage’ in its usage of Perala Kundalamman Temple’s lands which the civic body is using as bus stand. The municipality, through the Ministry of Local Administration, is seeking to reduce drastically the floor rent besides demolishing a Vinayakar shrine and a festival mandapam in the temple complex. The local body, in its over a decade-long quest for finding a suitable location for its new and expanded bus stand, finally zeroed in on the site where the present bus stand is located. The municipality found it difficult to purchase or get on lease a suitable site because of the geographical location of the town that is bounded by River Cauvery and the Tiruchi-Karur railway line and the exorbitant price fixed by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department for parting with the land near Sunga Gate belonging to three temples under its wing. Some other sites proposed were rejected on various grounds. No basic amenitiesThe present location, besides being cramped for space, lacks basic amenities forcing the Kulithalai bus stand to loiter as ‘Class D’ bus stand that does not even have bus bays. Moreover, the municipality that is since 1964 occupying 1.22 acres of the temple land for use as bus stand is paying as floor rent an amount that sees an upward revision every three years. From Rs. 100 a month in 1964 to Rs. 18,595 a month now, the floor rent has seen several revisions as per the relevant HR and CE rules. A recent letter from the Municipal Commissioner addressed to the Secretary, HR and CE Department, claimed that the local body might find it difficult to even maintain the bus stand if the rent was being revised to the extent envisaged at present if the prevalent revision scale holds. The municipality has run up a due of Rs. 4.13 lakh as rent to the temple as for several months now it has defaulted payments as floor rent despite collecting toll daily from numerous buses that do not even wish to halt for more than a few minutes in the so-called bus stand. Stalin’s effortsIt was under these circumstances that the Local Administration Minister, M.K. Stalin, had a couple of months back called for a discussion to resolve the imbroglio and clear the impediments in constructing a new bus stand for Kulithalai. In the meeting, it was decided that only 0.15 per cent of the market rate, and not the present 0.30 per cent, need to be collected as monthly floor rent and give away the temple land on long lease to the municipality for a fixed rent. This apart, for expanding the bus stand facilities, it was also decided that the Mangala Vinayakar shrine and Vidayatri Mandapam used during festivals be demolished to make way for the new bus stand. This has irked the public including ‘kudipaadu’ people from around 10 villages, including Kulithalai, Kottamedu, Pudupalayam, Keezhakuttapatti, Myladi, Pudur, Melakuttapatti, Ayyaneri, Thaliampatti, Ezhunootrumangalam, Manathattai and Naappalayam in the region. They met here recently and have strongly urged the Local Administration Minister, HR and CE Department and others concerned to halt any move that would hurt the sentiments of the devout besides disallowing the municipality’s lopsided approach to the issue.
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