Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar and other elected representatives at DISHA meeting in Madurai on Friday.
| Photo Credit: G. MOORTHY
The district administration should get back land from railways at Arasaradi here and should not charge any fee from the user public, said MP Su. Venkatesan here on Friday.Speaking to media persons after the DISHA meeting where Ministers CTR Nirmal Kumar and Viswanathan and Theni MP Thanga Tamil Selvan, MLAs A. Kallanai, S.R. Thangapandi, M.V. Karuppiah, S. Karthikeyan, M.M. Gobison, Madhar Badrudeen and M. Vijay and Deputy Mayor T. Nagarajan, Commissioner of Police (Madurai City) S. Rajendran and Corporation Commissioner Guarav Kumar and others participated, he said that the land belonged to Madurai district and revenue authorities have been directed to get it back from the railways.Recently, there were reports that the user public shall pay for morning stroll and for parking vehicles. Hence, the MP stressed that the district administration shall retrieve the land accordingly. He clarified that the CPI (M), along with the public, had organised meetings directing the railways to give it to the rightful owner.On the poor sanitation around the world famous Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, he said that the civic body is working on it. The meeting also discussed cleaning of Vaigai river. The Pandalkudi canal was being renovated and the works were going on at full swing, he said.On completion, pollutants should be prevented to a great extent.On Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana, he called for certain amends to it, which alone would benefit a State like Tamil Nadu. In the present nomenclature, the funds shall be used only for laying roads connecting villages with the district roads.In a district like Madurai, almost every village road was laid. He suggested that the funds should be allowed to be used for upkeep and for re-laying other roads as approved by the officials or as required by the users. He expressed concern that in the present set up, a major portion of the PMGSY funds may benefit only States like UP, MP and Bihar.The NHAI officials were directed at the meeting to revisit the bypass joining at Chittampatti highway as in the present condition, it would lead to road accidents, he said and apprehended that it may claim lives of road users and motorists in the region.On POCSO Act, the MP said that the number of crimes had increased in the Madurai rural district. The police and other department officials, including the Social Welfare and the Childline, were told to create awareness and sensitise the stakeholders.In Madurai city, the crime was under control, he replied to a query.The MP said that the objective of the DISHA meeting was to discuss threadbare the issues faced by the officials in executing ongoing works. Basically, in implementing a project, role of multiple departments was crucial. Hence, the governments were keen to help the officials in getting the problems solved, which would ultimately improve the infrastructure. Published - July 03, 2026 09:16 pm IST
