6000 saplings at the road side

Tuticorin: The Collector, R. Palaniyandi, has said that starting June 5, the administration would plant 6,000 saplings along the sides of 26 road stretches passing through the district, to `green' the environment and reduce pollution."The entire planting process will be completed within a week," he told reporters at the grievance day meeting here on Monday.

Saplings of margosa (2,898 numbers), tamarind (1,018), pugai (1,047), plemaforest (165), naval (2), usilai (15), sowkku (160), iluppai (150), puvarasu (90), vagai (410), arasu (15) and baniyan (30) had been selected for the project.Dr. Palaniyandi said that 3,725 saplings would be planted along the sides of 12 stretches of State Highways, 1,500 along the sides of eight major district road stretches and the rest along the sides of roads classified as other district roads.

He distributed welfare assistance worth Rs.1.18 lakh to 13 beneficiaries belonging to agrarian families. It included marriage assistance of Rs 5,000 each to five beneficiaries and solatium to the kin of eight farmers who died in harness. He gave away sewing machines to Mariryana Selvi, Murugammal, Poornam, Dhanalakshmi and Gomathi, under Sathiyavanimuthu Ammaiyar Ninaivu scheme of the Department of Social Welfare.A Paramasivan, Assistant Accountant General, and senior officials of various departments were present.

Official sources said that a total of 19 child workers were rescued from the district during last week.A team of officials from National Child Labour Project and Department of Labour rescued them from fruit stalls, groceries, fancy stores and other shops and establishments at Kovilpatti and Tuticorin.