Urban News

Source : The Hindu Date : 23.06.2009

Govt. to open browsing centres in libraries

Staff Reporter

— Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan

Access to net: Browsing facility established in Tirumal Public Library in Salem.

SALEM: The State Government will open browsing centres at five more public libraries in the district shortly.

The libraries located in Mettur, Omalur, Vazhapadi, Yercaud and Gengavalli will get the facility. Five centres have already been opened in District Central Library, Tirumal Public Library in Navazhar Nedunchezhian road, Sooramangalam, Sankagiri and Edapadi.

The Central Library has four computers, while all other centres have two computers each with broadband connection.

A sum of Rs. 10 is being collected as browsing charge for an hour and Rs. 5 for half-an-hour. The amount charged is 50 per cent less than what is charged at private establishments.

Officials in the library would provide assistance to the users and also ensure that the systems were not misused, District Library Officer V. Madeshwaran said.

The facility had been established with the objective to provide access to Internet to the people at affordable cost, he added.

“The response from the public is good. But we are not able to ensure better service to the users as the systems have old configuration,” library officials point out.

The government should initiate efforts to improve the facilities in the centres in order to attract more number of users, they said.

The officials also appealed to the government to appoint adequate number of personnel with computer knowledge to ensure effective functioning of the centres.

Source : The Hindu Date : 23.06.2009

A crown of TWAD Board works

C. Jaishankar

RAMANATHAPURAM: The Ramanathapuram Combined Water Supply Scheme, one of the largest rural water schemes in the country and the biggest water scheme in the State, has set records in several aspects, particularly use of pipes from the Cauvery riverbed in Tiruchi district and Dhanushkodi, one of the remote points of southern Tamil Nadu.

The TWAD Board, a Government agency supplying protected waters to several millions of people in the State, claims that the RCWSS is a crown to the TWAD Board considering its huge volume of cost, quick completion of the scheme, despite many adverse conditions and formation of supplying mains.

“Just imagine we are bringing water from Tiruchi, which is geographically located in central part of Tamil Nadu, to the remote areas such as Rameswaram, Sayalkudi etc., in Ramanathapuram, which is located in down south of Tamil Nadu. I feel it is a great achievement for the TWAD Board from its inception. We never gave up though we faced several difficulties while implementing the scheme,” Swaran Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, told The Hindu.

He said pipes had been laid to the length of whopping 5,418 km along main lines, streets, wards, lanes and others from Mutharasanallur to Rameswaram.

“We have covered every nook and corner of Ramanathapuram district. Not even a single hamlet has been left out. I have never come across such a kind of large scheme that too solving the several decades old drinking water crisis faced by over one million people of Ramanathapuram district,” Mr. Singh added.

PVC pipes

While PVC pipes have covered 4,615 km, pre-stressed concrete pipes have been laid along 438 km.

“When we planned to lay pipe to a record length, the companies producing pre stressed concrete pipes told us that they had not produced to this large requirement from their inception period. But we have made it happen,” he said.

Mr. Singh said it was not that the ground level implementing authorities and the four main contractors had faced no problem.

Unseasonal rain that hit the district for several times was the main impediment faced by them.

“The district is known for insufficient rainfall. But from the day we started the work, it has started receiving huge rain. It received 1492.6 mm in 2008 as against the average of just 827 mm. It slowed down the work in many areas. Otherwise we would have completed the work at least six months earlier,” he said.

The second biggest problem was in getting the no objection certificate from the National Highways Authorities of India (NHAI) that was mandatory for carrying pipe on the Pamban road bridge. The file could not be cleared by them for more than a year citing various reasons.

The authorities could finally get the permission, thanks to the special interest taken by the Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin through the then Minister for Surface Transport T.R. Baalu.