Talk of the town

AFTER MONTHS of running behind water tankers and waiting in queues in front of water tanks, the city seems to have suddenly opened its eyes to the abundance of source available within.

Water treatment plants, that were for long considered out of reach due to near prohibitive operative costs, are back in the news. Two new plants are being set by the Metrowater at Ayodhya Kuppam and Kasimedu Kuppam to convert brackish water. Three old ones are functioning at Velachery, Kasimedu and Nochikuppam.

The re-look at the desalination plants has also spelt good news for the private manufacturers, who are wooing especially the industries in the Manali belt with the idea of having their own water purification units, much like captive power plants.

Water is now big news and thus Chief Vigilance Commissioner Mr. N. Vittal also made it a point to visit a desalination plant being managed by TEAM recently, to literally get a first-hand taste of the product. He believes that the high costs of operation is acceptable.

Especially, when one takes into account the huge money being spent to transport water, and also the possible corruption involved. Not music to the ears of those who love the Chennai drought. But then this was the CVC speaking.

Testing the waters.

* * *

IT is October, poll times and the Chennai skies are full of them. Strung up over rooftops in reds, blues, blacks, whites, yellows, greens or in mix-match multi-hued combinations are these banners, buntings and flags that fight for air space, that spring up like mushrooms after a rainy day.

Fighting to grab the electorate's attention are these flags in cloth, paper and plastics (just to recall that some political parties are avowedly against using plastic flags before the Assembly Elections).

While the argument for using plastic flags seems fair enough that they can be reused rather than go in for bio- degradable cotton or paper flags, an election volunteer points out that it was never the case and parties always went in for fresh lots for every occasion.

Votaries of plastic flags are not prepared to buy the ``ecology- friendly'' logic as this being monsoon time, paper flags might get destroyed in rains and the colours may run off cloth flags.

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board which has been campaigning on the plastics issue has done its bit for this elections too.

The Board has written to the State Election Commission asking whether any instruction can be given to campaigning factions against use of plastic flags. Silence is the word from the Commission end.

* * *

SHARP UNDERCURRENTS of politics are sweeping through communities, with the campaigning for the local body polls gathering momentum.

Residents in many areas are all set to flex their muscles and vote against those Councillors who did little during the last five years, but have managed to get renominated this time.

In fact, a resolution has been passed by residents welfare associations in Kodungaiyur, against the incumbent councillor.

``He actively sabotaged voluntary efforts to improve civic conditions, and we have decided to vote against him,'' says a spokesman of one association.

Ditto is the case in Velachery, where there are allegations of land grabbing by some Councillors.

``There is a distinct trend of residents taking a collective decision to defeat some incumbents who have managed to contest again,'' says a senior functionary of Exnora International, which has kept away from the politics of the elections, but whose members have taken decisions based on local conditions.

* * *

THE DRAVIDIAN parties never tire of proclaiming their work for Backward Classes in the State.

But the condition of hostels for students of the BCs or MBCs, would make anyone wonder what these parties are doing for the hapless students who reside in these abodes. Even basic amenities are lacking.

A little less than one-third of the total number of 972 hostels are housed in government buildings.

In Chennai, there are about a dozen hostels and barring one, all others are in rented premises.

Even where the hostels are in government buildings, they invariably are not situated within the premises of educational institutions, in which the students are studying.

One wonders what prevents the Government from putting its effort where its rhetoric is.

By Karthik Subramanian,

T. Ramakrishnan and Akila Dinakar

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