19 town panchayat will augment infra fecili

Tuticorin: Starting this financial year, the Department of Municipal Administration will augment infrastructure facilities in the 19 town panchayats in the district on a total outlay of Rs 9.5 crore in four phases.The Collector, R. Palaniyandi, said that the total allocation would be distributed equally to the administrations of 19 town panchayats at a rate of Rs. 50 lakh, to plug gaps on the infrastructure front in the respective regions over four fiscals ending on 2010-11.Of the Rs. 50 lakh allocated to each town panchayat, Rs. 35 lakh would come from the corpus created under All Town Panchayats Anna Renaissance Scheme and the rest from the Infrastructure Gap Filling Fund under the State Finance Commission Grants.

During the current fiscal (2007-08), the project would cover Kanam, Authoor, Arumuganeri and Sawyerpuram town panchayats.Mr. Palaniyandi said that as part of the scheme, streetlights fitted with energy saving compact fluorescent bulbs and community halls for self-help groups would be established at the respective village panchayats.Besides, desilting would be carried out to augment the capacity of water bodies .The roads would be strengthened wherever it was found necessary.Mr. Palaniyandi said that during the next financial year (2008-09), development works would be taken up at Kazhugamalai, Thenthiruperi, Alwarthirunageri, Sattankulam and Srivaikundam town panchayats.

The town panchayats of Nazareth, Vilathikulam, V. Puthur, Udangudi and Perungulam would be covered in the third stage of the project to be implemented in 2009-10.In the final phase (2010-11), infrastructure facilities at Ettayapuram, Eral, Tiruchnedur, Kadambur and Kayathar town panchayats would be strengthened.A committee headed by the Collector would be constituted to review the progress of development works taken up.The other members of the committee include the Project Officer of District Rural Development Agency, the Assistant Director of Town Panchayats, the Executive Engineer of TWAD Board, the Assistant Executive Engineer of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, the executive officer of the respective town panchayat and the Deputy Director of Health Services.