Coimbatore Corporation that started on Wednesday the work to construct a primary health centre at a park in R.K.K. Nagar, Neelikonampalayam, was forced to suspend it following protest from public and intervention from an elected representative.
On Wednesday, the civic body sent its men and machinery to the park in Ward 59.
Play materials
They began uprooting the children’s play materials from the 20-plus-cent park.
The civic body workers almost removed the concrete foundations beneath the ground but stopped it following their intervention, says M. Govindaraj, president, Vasantha Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association.
They residents stopped the work just in time, else the workers would have removed the children’s play things.
When they inquired, the residents were told that the Corporation had planned to construct a primary health centre. It was not needed in the park because senior citizens of Vasantha Nagar, R.K. Nagar and R.K.K. Nagar were using it mornings and evenings for recreation.
There was no necessity to build the health centre there because the park was in use and there was private and public health facilities in the neighbourhood and with easy access at that, said another residents. The residents then informed the Singanallur MLA N. Karthik, who rushed to the spot to support the residents.
He wanted to know why the Corporation wanted to take up construction in a park that was in use.
Plus, he also questioned the move to take up construction in the park that the Corporation had built as a ‘Semmozhi Poonga’ for 2010 World Classical Tamil Conference.
The Corporation had then spent close to Rs. 20 lakh.
A resident of the area said that the civic body construct the health facility on reserved sites north of the railway track because that was where the people from low and middle income groups lived.
Corporation sources said that they had temporarily stopped the work following the MLA’s intervention.
The people should realise that the health facility would benefit the very people who now used the park.
Nevertheless, the civic body would have a fresh look at the issue before deciding the next course of action.
