Tamil Nadu   

Home for the disabled

Hopes of seeing light at the end of the tunnel have brightened with the assurance of the Nilgiris District Collector that the disabled in the district will soon have a home of their own. It is also heartening to note that special camps will be held every month to take care of other problems of the physically challenged.

P.U. Krishnan,

Udhagamandalam.

Coimbatore city is highly congested owing to lorry and bus traffic, especially in the Town Hall area. Lorries have been restricted from entering the City in the morning and the evening. Lorries coming from Kerala pass through Athupalem, Ukkadam and the Town Hall area and cause heavy traffic congestion during peak hours. The railway bridge at Ukkadam by-pass is likely to be thrown open to traffic. Because of the bridge work, lorries are diverted via Nanjundapuram and Ramanathapuram to reach Trichy Road. This in turn makes Nanjundapuram-Ramanathapuram Road heavily congested. The traffic police should control movement of vehicles through a web camera fitted at important entry points in the city. All vehicles coming from Palakkad and Pollachi should be diverted to the by-pass road. Oppanakara Street is another area which has heavy pedestrian and traffic flow. Hawkers, shopkeepers and two-wheelers encroach on the pavement right from the Prakasam bus stop to the Raja Street junction. Absence of a proper footpath from Shoba Corner, where the pedestrian flow is heavy, forces people to walk on the road leading to accidents. Parking of two-wheelers on the entire stretch from Shoba Corner to the Raja Street junction should be disallowed and a special enclosure near the Guru Hotel parking lot should be provided for the two-wheelers.

C.M. Jeyaraam,

Secretary, Ciizens’ Voice Club, Coimbatore.

Election of members for the railway union is an yearly affair. Recently the election was held in this part which witnessed stiff competition among various groups. The groups used handbills, posters, banners, cutouts etc. to canvass votes. In the recent election, public property - railway platforms, walls, buildings, open sites, etc. - was used indiscriminately disfiguring the places. These paintings and posters will remain there for some time and all efforts by authorities to keep the stations clean stand defeated. Unions should refrain from disfiguring the public property and places.

T.V. Kalyanakrishnan,

Coimbatore.

I am a subscriber to the broadband connection from October 2006. I pay all dues to BSNL every month without any penalty. However, my broadband has been unserviceable most of the time in the last few months.

I have been contacting the BSNL office for the last 10 days, almost every day. There was some response (on three days) - but nothing has come of it. Some of my complaints are: To the BSNL Customer Care (telephone number 1500) on November 1. The agent advised me to call 2393100 - but no response from the telephone number. On November 9 the senior agent spoke to me and advised to contact the General Manager at telephone number 2433300. There has been no response from this number. On November 4 the Customer Care agent (telephone number 1500) asked me to register a compliant at telephone number 12678. I registered the complaint and my docket No is 093. There has been a call from the cellular phone number of one of the officials at the exchange (three calls during the period - last on November 9) telling me that the complaint was being attended to. However, my broadband continues to be unserviceable. I have sent an SMS too on this number. I have been dialling number 12678.

The recorded voice tells me that the compliant has been registered earlier. We have also kept the PRO of BSNL informed. For about 10 days (till November 20) it was all right. However, in the last 15 days it has been dysfunctional again. During the morning and evening hours, it is unserviceable - the time when we need it most! I request the BSNL authorities to look into my grievance.

Raju Srinivasan,

Coimbatore.

This refers to ‘Vocational education and training…’(Dec. 3). The report has highlighted the multi-faceted vocational education imparted by Avinashilingam Jan Siksha Sansthan, formerly called Avinashilingam Shramik Vidya Peet.

The institute funded by the Government of India, Ministry of Human Resources, is doing a yeoman service by giving job-oriented training for more than two decades. The beneficiaries of the training are school dropouts and other less privileged persons. The credit for setting up this institute should go to Sri Avinashilingam, freedom fighter, Gandhian and founder of educational institutions, Ramakrishna Vidyalaya and Sri Avinashilingam Deemed University for Women.

A. Ranganathan,

Coimbatore.

I refer to the news item ‘Aaja Nachle back in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab theatres’ (Dec 3).

I did not expect The Hindu to give such a prominence to a cinema news, which has relevance only to the producer and its distributors. The screening or not screening of this film will not in any way affect the common man. Please don’t disappoint your readers with such worthless news.

K. Subhash Chandiran

Coimbatore.

Kovaipudur always bears the brunt of any problem and this time because of power shortage.

Now that the Power Minister has said that rural areas will have power cut for half-an-hour every day, it is a green signal for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to cut power in Kovaipudur for nearly half-a-day instead of half-an-hour. Apparently, Kovaipudur is a “rural” area when it comes to power cuts but “urban” for other purposes. On November 20 the power shutdown in Kovaipudur was from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. On the same day there was no power from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. The daily power shutdown schedule in other areas of Coimbatore is from 9 a.m. to only 2 p.m. Since the timing and the duration of the power cut vary from day to day, I request the TNEB to come out with a schedule of power cuts for all areas of Coimbatore so that people will know the timings of the power cuts and their duration and organise their activities accordingly.

Nandita. S,

Coimbatore.

Is using biofuel a crime against humanity? Using various non-food crops for biofuel should be welcomed. But corporate bodies are venturing to convert food crops to fuel. Cereal prices are soaring in African countries; palmoil imported by India will cost more; the Ugandan government dropped the programme to grow sugarcane for fuel. In the European Union subsidy for energy crops has been reduced from US$ 63.83 per hectare. A UN special report insists on ‘Right for food’ and calls upon a five-year moratorium on food crops for biofuel. India is converting food crops for fuel. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University plans to bring 1.5 lakh acres of land under jatropha cultivation. Are they wastelands or cultivable lands?

Is it ‘Food for the people or fuel for industries’? Does the government formulate policies or the corporate bodies?

K.K. Lakshmanan,

Coimbatore.

The need for an overnight express train from Coimbatore to the southern districts such as Madurai, Tirunelveli and Nagercoil need not be overemphasied. Owing to persistant demands from people and workers in the southern districts, who have migrated to Coimbatore, Tirupur and Erode, for a direct night express train, the Railway Ministry had announced in the last year’s budget a direct express train from Coimbatore to Nagercoil and vice versa. But the train has so far not been put on the track.

According to the railway time table for the period from July 2007 to July 2008, an express train between Coimbatore and Nagerocil and vice versa has been numbered as 6610 and 6609. I

ts timing has also been notified. But it is mentioned that the date of introduction of the express train (6910 and 6909) will be notified later. Till date no notification has been given about the date of launching of the train. Tirupur and Erode municipalities will be upgraded as Corporations from January 2008 and migration of more workers to these places is anticipated. Will the authorities concerned notify the date on which the train will be flagged off ?

V.Muthukrishnan,

Coimbatore.

Readers can mail to cbereaders@thehindu.co.in with address and telephone number.

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

Stories in this Section

Run for health
Crime on the rise in areas surrounding subway at Tambaram
Drive against unhygienic meat stalls planned
Home for the disabled
Getting ready
Injured
Precaution
Two special courts to be set up at Jayamkondam
Site identified for engineering college
Group: padayatra for Union Territory status for Karaikal
Campus interview
Smuggled rice seized
Baby injected with hot needle dies
Siva temple unearthed
Tirupur passing through a rough patch; falling dollar spares none
Workshop on advertising today
Socio-economic conditions will be improved: Minister
Children’s account of calamity
Crab fattening makes their lives better
Here, creativity at its clinical best
Need for quality higher education: Ponmudy
‘Puppetry yathra’ on child rights
Roller skating, a fast emerging and exciting hobby for children
Committee visit
Mettur level
Aavin milk in short supply?
Police attitude
Students showcase Tamil Nadu’s diversity
Construction worker falls to death at Sholinganallur
Expo leaves much to be desired
Killed in accident
Take steps to augment power generation: consumer forum
“Eradicate domestic violence against women”
District bifurcation: officials asked to submit proposals
CPI(M) assails power cuts in State
Exhibition on bio-diversity held
SP’s pat for Home Guards
Television education workshop held for teachers in Tiruvarur
Pilot project for integrated block development extended to Nannilam
Plan for speedy implementation of mine project
Woman naxalite taken to Andhra Pradesh
Training programme for Muslim youth
Karunanidhi greets Sonia Gandhi
Sri Lankan Tamil refugees to supply readymade garments to Co-optex
Stipend scheme will benefit 15 lakh minority students
Italian universities scouting for researchers
India, Slovak bilateral trade well below potential: envoy
“Public monuments need to interpret lives of ordinary people”

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu