The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Shortage of coins

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Monday, Feb 25, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Shortage of coins

In the last couple of months, Chennai city and its suburbs are facing a sudden shortage of one- and two-rupee coins.

Bus conductors and staff at the railway ticket counters are invariably demanding exact changes for tickets. The vegetable vendors are no exception to this. The same is the situation in supermarkets also.

Earlier, when the Reserve Bank of India had coins in abundance, they conducted coin melas in bazaars and other business centres in Chennai for disposal of coins. The shortage is presumably owing to the fact that banks are not lifting the required quantity of coins from the RBI and not putting them into circulation, for reasons such as shortage of staff, storage space in their vaults, etc. Considering the need of the hour, all banks should come forward to tide over the present situation.

V. Sundaresan,

Chromepet

Mambalam railway station

The Mambalam Railway Station lacks two important passenger amenities:

(1) The entire length of the mainline platform is not provided with an overhead covered shelter to enable passengers to use the station without difficulty during rainy and summer days.

(2) The overlapping portion of the mainline platform over the Duraisamy Road subway should be provided with a grill-protective dwarf wall on the eastern side to prevent any rail passenger, while entraining or detraining, from accidentally falling over the subway.

M. Tyagarajan,

Adambakkam

Deluxe buses

Most of the buses operated on Route No. 66 (Tambaram-Poonamallee) bear the label ‘Deluxe’ pasted on their windscreens. The conductors collect double the normal charges from the commuters most of whom are daily wage-earners, students and people belonging to poor and middle classes. What is ironical about these deluxe services is that they are no better than ordinary services. These buses are equally overcrowded and do not provide any comfort. Moreover, these deluxe buses stop at all points. Hence charging double fare is not justified.

N. Ramachandran,

Polichalur

Service road needed

At present, it is a Herculean task to cross the GST Road to Irumbiliyur village and several accidents occur at the Irumbiliyur crossing, since vehicles are coming with break-neck speed.

Hence, we request you to instruct the Project Director, NHAI, Indra Nagar, Adyar, to provide service road with 200 metres’ length and 20 feet breadth at Vaniyan Kulam, T.T.K. Nagar, Survey No. 60, Irumbiliyur village, to help 2000 people of several colonies surrounding T.T.K. Nagar, UMA Nagar, and Bharathidasan Nagar to enter their locality safely without the ordeal of crossing the GST Road.

C.R. Parthasarathy

T.T.K. Nagar

Bus service to Kotturpuram

The Kotturpuram MRTS Station is in an enviable position in that it has safe and good approach roads and a huge frontage for bus bays. In the recent announcement made by Southern Railway to link the local bus transport with MRTS, Kotturpuram does not find a place at all.

The residents of the eastern side do not have any other transport except the MRTS and the fleecing autorickshaws. To mitigate the woes of the commuters, it is requested that buses be operated from the Kotturpuram Railway Station.

A lone 5C bus plying earlier has been withdrawn for several years. Besides, some existing bus services from Adyar, Besant Nagar, Tiruvanmiyur etc. could be diverted via Kottur which will be a boon to the local residents.

At least, shareautos could be permitted to ply towards T. Nagar, Guindy or Tiruvanmiyur. Will the authorities do the needful?

P.S. Balakumar

Kotturpuram

Ration card transfer

I am a 78-year-old woman. Recently, I shifted from Perungalathur (Tambaram) to Besant Nagar.

On 15. 2. 2008, I went to the Civil Supplies Office at Tambaram to get my ration card shifted to my present address. I found one long queue standing in front of the office under the scorching sun, for every thing; for receiving applications for new cards, for transfer of ration cards, for surrender of cards etc. I stood for an hour in the hot sun and finally, I fainted and returned home without my card transferred.

Will the authorities kindly help me get my ration card transferred?

S. Mangalam

Besant Nagar

Formation of Corporations

The State Government, through its Order No. 30 dated 20. 2. 2007 issued by the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, has stated that it is imperative to amalgamate the 16 Municipalities, 20 Town Panchayats and 222 Village Panchayats falling within the Chennai Metropolitan area and form two Corporations with a view to integrating schemes and thereby enhancing the efficiency of delivery mechanism in respect of the following civic services: 1. Quality roads; 2. Protected drinking water; 3. Good streetlights; 4. Proper drainage and sewerage systems; 5. Solid waste management.

In terms of the above G.O. a committee was formed to recommend to the Government within six months the procedures to be followed with regard to formation of new Corporations.

Though it is more than one year since the G.O. was published, the Governor, in his address, has made no specific mention about the matter. Will the Government of Tamil Nadu take action for formation of the new Corporations without any further delay?

P. Viswanathan

Chitlapakkam

Tiruchi-Howrah Superfast Train

I frequently travel by Tiruchi-Howrah Superfast Train from Tiruchi. Owing to a lot of crossings en route, this train is detained at several stations to give way to goods, passenger and express trains. As a result, most of the days the train reaches Egmore only after 11 p.m., giving untold hardship to the travelling public who have to go to various places in the city. Will the authorities concerned ensure punctuality?”

S. Vellasamy

Koyambedu

Skipping the stop

The bus plying from Vivekananda House to Vallalar Nagar (32A Yellow Service) does not stop at Pallavan House in spite of repeated complaints while 32B, which makes a halt at the location, does not maintain the schedule of time. Indeed many commuters board the 32A bus at Triplicane High Road and get down at Pallavan House because their children go to the Kendriya Vidyalaya.

If the transport authorities arrange a definite halt at Pallavan House, students will benefit.

R. Narayanan

Triplicane

Segregation of garbage

One reader from Ashok Nagar has suggested in theses columns on February 11, 2008 that the civic body could provide two dustbins for each street instead of two containers for each home.

In my opinion, this will create more problems resulting in nullifying the scheme. No householder would like to keep the dustbins before his house or apartment on justifiable grounds. When the dustbins are not cleared regularly, they will overflow spilling the garbage onto the street and other householders will not evince interest in getting them cleared. And the dustbins would be shifted in a clandestine manner to the neighbouring house and the shifting would go on endlessly with the result that they would disappear at the end. Therefore, the proposal to keep dustbins in each house or apartment may be given a fair trial.

R. Chandrasekaran

Annanagar

Phone directory

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited should issue the new directory to all its subscribers who produce the current telephone bill along with the receipt for the payment.

Chennai Telephones should not insist on the subscribers returning the old directory for issuing new directory.

P.V. Srinivasan

Sastri Nagar

Gauge conversion

The all-important 122-km mainline Villupuram-Mayiladuthurai section with 27 major and 320 minor bridges was taken up for gauge conversion on 01. 12. 2006. I understand that there is some delay in completing the Coleroon bridge work and as a result, there is a major traffic hitch. The project is expected to be completed by June 2008.

I request the authorities to complete the 46-km Villupuram-Cuddalore stretch and get necessary mandatory clearance from the Safety Commissioner. On his decision, an express train service can be introduced for 281 km from Puducherry to Salem, which has become a Railway Division a few months ago.

The project was to have been completed in December, 2007 but considerably delayed for various reasons.

I would, therefore, request the Railways to operate an express train, named after ‘’Bharathiar” in memory of the patriotic poet, to cover Puducheerry, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Neyveli, Vridhachalam, and Salem.

It will be a boon to the passengers bound for Mayiladuthurai as they will be partially satisfied if it is extended upto Cuddalore for the time being. This will also relieve the congestion to some extent.

S. Gopalan

Maraimalai Nagar

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