The Kulithalai Municipal Council and the DMK are divided over the location of the new bus stand for the town.
The demand for a new bus stand to accommodate the burgeoning human and vehicle population is seeing yet another turn in its long saga with the latest episode.
The people of Kulithali have been demanding a new and expanded bus stand to accommodate the growing population as the present Sri Perala Kundhala Amman temple grounds could hardly accommodate a few buses.
The site has been the bus terminus for the town for over five decades and has hardly seen any improvement in basic amenities.
Social activists and public have been pressing hard for a new bus stand for more than two decades now. Around 15 years back a five-member committee was formed to look into the merits of a few sites considered but nothing came out of the move.
After a lull, again a search was mounted and some sites short listed but every thing came to a naught after some time, and the present site was continued to be used.
The demand receded into the background for a brief while as the new bypass of a section of the National Highway 67 linking Tiruchi with Karur skirted the town entirely and people were more interested in bringing the buses into the town for public utility.
Some days back the Kulithalai MLA A.Pappa Sundaram of the AIADMK presented a memorandum to the Karur Collector, S.Jayandhi, and Transport Minister V.Senthil Balaji during their visit to the town seeking a solution to the vexed issue by finding a suitable site for the bus stand. The Collector promised to take quick action on the demand.
The administration came up with the site located between the South Bank Canal and River Cauvery and incidentally belonging to the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department – meaning owned by a temple.
DMK opposition
That plan was sought to be Okayed at the Kulithalai Municipal Council meet on Wednesday.
When the subject was taken up for discussion, eight out of the 13 DMK councillors in the house opposed the new site.
They pointed out that during the previous DMK regime itself it was decided to retain the bus stand at the present location for another 30 years and take up encroachment removal and facility additions at the present location to meet the expanding demand.
Instead of pursuing that idea, the present rulers were trying to wipe out the agreed plan and come up with one of their own just to please their political masters, the DMK members alleged, while opposing the new site plan vehemently.
Interestingly, while the Kulithalai Municipal Chairman Pallavi Raja (MDMK) was agreeable to the plan with the vice-chairman Jaffaraullah (DMK) warming up to the idea, the staunch opposition by a section of the DMK councillors brought the rift out in the open both in the council and in the DMK party.
However, with a majority of the councillors accepting the plan to have the bus stand in the new site, the motion was carried amidst protest from the eight DMK councillors.
