The division is relatively free of teething troubles
Carved out from the former Devankulangara and Vennala divisions, Padivattom is a diminutive division relatively free of teething troubles.
“Since it was part of a huge division, paucity of adequate funds led to certain parts of the division - areas north of the Oberon mall in particular - facing constant neglect. That is passé, as the new division is considerably tiny. I’ve therefore focused on developing areas such as the Melpara Colony,” says M.B. Muraleedharan, who represented Vennala in the last council.
Contiguous to the Vyttila-Edapally bypass with the pipeline road, which was in bad shape till recently, cutting across it, the division’s streets were ill-lit. “The by-lanes and streets are adequately lit now. Roads have been tarred or repaired in view of the monsoon. Culverts near the Melpara colony, which would see flooding in the monsoons, have also been largely restored. At our request, the MLA has got the Irrigation department take up the cleaning of Edapally thodu and Thuvalan kuthiya thodu. Encroachments along the canals coupled with dumping of waste have clogged them, leading to inundation when it rains. However, Peechampally thodu and Puthussery canal have already been de-clogged and desilted ahead of the monsoon,” he says.
The much-awaited tarring of the pipeline road, done using K. Babu’s MLA fund in his last term, was a battle won hard. “It is a service road maintained by the Water Authority and heavy vehicles are not supposed to ply along it. Lack of maintenance made it unserviceable even for two-wheeler riders. After it was tarred, the road is in good condition now. This apart, maintenance of roads along the division will gather momentum by next year when fresh projects under the people’s planning programme receive clearance. Drinking water shortage is a relatively new issue facing certain pockets of the division. Plans are afoot to tap into the Alinchuvadu-Vennala pipeline and the bypass pipeline near Anjumana, to resolve the issue. Along the bypass, old cast iron pipes need to be replaced with PVC pipes to plug leakage,” he says.
Meanwhile, Chandrasekhara Menon, the president of the Padivattom Residents’ Association, rues that poor maintenance of culverts near Alinchuvadu and to the north of Padivattom LP School invariably leads to flooding during rainy season. The culverts, built in 1990, remain half-done. Add to that the absence of a culvert at the point where the pipeline road links with the bypass and the area turns into a veritable pool in the rain, he laments.
Mr. Menon is also peeved about encroachments on the link road connecting the bypass to Alinchuvadu, which he says have rendered the road narrow at places. Illegal parking of vehicles on either side of this link road near the bypass during weekends clogs the road, making travel along the route unpleasant and nearly impossible, he says.
