Monday, May 09, 2005
Monday, May 09, 2005 |
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Kerala
T. Ramavarman
GURUVAYUR: The Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, will have to attend to a plethora of problems when he arrives here on Tuesday for a brain-storming and on-the-spot decision-taking session as part of the State Government's initiative to chalk out a master plan for the development of the temple town. The Guruvayur Devaswom, the Guruvayur Municipality, the local MLA and MP as well as representatives of other organisations and social activists are planning to submit their proposals for the development of Guruvayur to the Chief Minister. The Devaswom Managing Committee is meeting on Monday to give a final shape to the proposals to be submitted to the Chief Minister, while the municipality has already sent a draft proposal to him. The local MLA, P.K.K. Bava, has already convened a meeting of the various sections, including officials, to identify a list of priorities for the proposed master plan.
Top priorities
When contacted Mr. Bava; the municipal chairperson, Mercy Joy; and the Devaswom Managing Committee Member, N.K. Sudhir, told The Hindu here that ensuring drinking water supply and launching schemes for draining out the wastewater and processing the solid waste should get the highest priority in the proposed master plan. Another important requirement will be to augment the parking facilities as well as the basic infrastructure such as roads and public toilets. Mr. Sudhir said steps must be taken to provide accommodation for the poorer sections of the pilgrims who come to Guruvayur. He said efforts must also be made to build up a green belt in Guruvayur through the joint initiative of the Devaswom and municipality. The acquisition of the land around the temple should be done on a war-footing, so that the Devaswom will be able to provide more space and facilities to the pilgrims.
Pilgrim flow
The municipal chairperson said the according to estimates, about three crore pilgrims are known to be visiting Guruvayur annually. The total area of Guruvayur Municipality is only around 7.476 square kilometre and the permanent residents here are only about 22,000. But the drainage facilities in Guruvayur are far below the requirements considering the heavy flow of pilgrims, and this has developed into a major public health problem here. A proposal to start a wastewater drainage scheme based at Chakkamkandom area has been pending for about three decades because of numerous problems including protest from the area. The municipal authorities, the Devaswom and the local MLA are unanimously demanding that the Chief Minister should take the initiative to implement the project in a stipulated timeframe. The solid waste treatment plant, set up by the municipality couple of years ago, has not been functioning at the desired level for some years. There is a strong demand to set up an advanced solid waste treatment plant in Guruvayur. The local MLA said some initiatives have already been taken to launch a drinking water scheme for Guruvayur from Karuvannur River. This Rs.24-crore scheme is to be implemented in collaboration with the Life Insurance Corporation. The meeting convened by the Chief Minister is expected to evolve programmes for the speedy implementation of the scheme.
Tourism potential
There are also demands for the construction of a railway overbridge at Guruvayur as well as for schemes for taping the tourism potential of the areas such as the Anakotta, the elephant yard of Guruvayur Devaswom located at Punnathurkotta. The Minister for Tourism and Devaswom, K.C. Venugopal, the officials of the KWA, Water Resource, Local-Self Government, Revenue, PWD, Transport and Devaswom Departments are expected to participate in the discussions. It is not clear whether other Ministers are attending the meeting.
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