The Hindu : Front Page : Infrastructure may be a major poll plank in Coimbatore

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Wednesday, Apr 08, 2009
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Infrastructure may be a major poll plank in Coimbatore

K.V. Prasad

– File photo: S. Siva Saravanan

Hope ahead? : Amenities to slum dwellers are among the projects that may figure in the election campaign.

COIMBATORE: This time, the theory that local issues are irrelevant to Lok Sabha elections may go out of the window. Indications here are that allies Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) will stress good Centre-State relations for the implementation of major infrastructure schemes in the city.

With the DMK allocating the Coimbatore constituency to the Congress, signs of micro-level campaign in the wards by councillors are emerging even as the candidate is yet to be formally announced. The Central Government’s infrastructure development programme – Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) – is set to be the main poll plank in terms of city development. A promise to get the metro rail system may also be made.

The infrastructure mission has put the city in a position where it needs more than Rs.1,500 crore in grants from the Central Government for projects totally worth Rs.3,186 crore.

Parties in the Coimbatore Corporation point out that this is the first time that the Centre and its schemes become so relevant to city during the Lok Sabha elections.

One of the schemes being pointed out is the Basic Services for the Urban Poor under which houses are being built for slum dwellers. Incidentally, the DMK’s manifesto pledges to create slum-free cities in the State.

“We will take the progress of the JNNURM schemes to the people,” says Mayor R. Venkatachalam, a Congress member.

“Schemes for underground sewers, drinking water supply augmentation and other infrastructure have progressed so far because of the good relations between the Congress-led Government at the Centre and the DMK Government in the State. People have to take note of this,” he says.

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