Even as the Government’s decision to have the inauguration of the metro rail by the Chief Minister through videoconferencing has set off a political debate, commissioning of new government buildings by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa through video-conferencing has now become less complex for the official machinery. Unlike in the past when there used to be live interaction between officials in the State secretariat and district and department heads in the new building at the time of commissioning, now-a-days it is just enough if the local officials register their presence in the new buildings at the specified time. The new practice is less taxing for officials since otherwise they would have been required to go through a rehearsal process for a day or two. Leave alone the trouble they take to arrange the elaborate paraphernalia for video-conferencing.
A majority of water experts and officials who participated in the two-day training programme on groundwater management held at Periyar University, Salem, had one thing in common to say – judicious use of available water. Till a couple of decades ago, people used to draw water from open wells using rope and bucket for bathing, washing and other needs. Since it was a tedious process, they did not waste water and used it carefully. At present a majority of the houses have overhead water tanks. Taking bath under showers, municipal taps and in motor pump sets has become the order of the day even in the villages. Due to this, people waste water, leading to depletion in ground water level, District Collector K. Maharabushanam said.
The Cooptex has been implementing different schemes to popularise its brands and boost sales. The monthly savings scheme, incentive scheme have been very popular with middle class and weaker sections. A large number of handloom weavers’ cooperative societies have been facing severe financial crunch for years together, thanks to the piling up of stock owing to old marketing practices. The Salem and Tiruchengode Region Handloom Weavers Cooperative Societies Employees Union discussed this at its recent meeting in Salem. The meeting pleaded with the State Government to introduce new marketing strategies to clear the piled up stock. It suggested introduction of monthly savings scheme, incentive scheme etc on the lines of Cooptex to attract the common people towards the handloom varieties.
The regular meetings of the municipalities, town panchayats and panchayat unions in Salem and Namakkal districts, which usually meet in the last week of the month, have only one point agenda.
All these meetings commence with a resolution hailing the landslide victory of the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the recent R. K. Nagar by-election. The agenda slated for the day takes a backseat as councillors of the ruling party vie with each other in hailing the victory as “historic” one. The councillors of the opposition parties, who are very few in numbers in all these local bodies, have no other option but to watch the proceedings, which have nothing to do with the problems confronting the people, silently. Similar trend was witnessed in the meetings of the local bodies held in the month of May. On that occasion, top priority was accorded for the resolution hailing the verdict of the Karnataka High Court in the disproportionate assets case.
(Reporting by
R. Krishnamoorthy
in Erode,
S.P. Saravanan,
Syed Muthahar Saqaf in Salem)
