TN to take Sai Baba's help to clean up

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TN to take Sai Baba's help to clean up

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11 Feb 2009, 0416 hrs IST, Ajitha Karthikeyan, TNN

 

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has decided to knock on the doors of Sri

Sathya Sai Trust once again, seeking help to clean up the Cooum river

which has been reduced to a drainage from a fresh water source.

 

Local administration minister M K Stalin and public works minister Duraimurugan

will call on godman Sathya Sai Baba at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh next week

and request him to fund the much-awaited project. Their visit, planned this

week, had to be postponed in view of chief minister M Karunanidhi's surgery

scheduled for Wednesday.

 

" We've already made a written representation to Sai Baba in this regard and he

has assured us that he will consider the proposal. The public works department

has prepared a project report which will be submitted to the godman, "

Duraimurugan said.

 

" We will seek maximum fund from the Trust but it is for them to decide on the

quantum of assistance. If approved, they may implement works through L & T, " he

added.

 

This is not the first time that the DMK government has sought the help of Sai

Baba for infrastruture development. The Sathya Sai Trust has already upgraded

the 25-km-long Kandaleru-Poondi canal to facilitate a free flow of Krishna water

to meet the water needs of the city. In fact, chief minister M Karunanidhi, a

self-professed atheist, has even publicly shared dais with Sai Baba for the

Krishna water project in 2007, raising many an eyebrow in the political circle.

 

Official sources said the estimated cost for the execution of engineering works,

involving river channelisation and catchment restoration, alone amounted to Rs

140 crore. As the Cooum clean-up project involved multi-disciplinary activities,

including handling of sewage and solid waste and the removal of encroachments

from the river bank and rehabilitation, the total cost of the project could be

arrived at only at a later stage, the sources added.

 

Once a fishing river and boat racing arena, the Cooum flows to a distance of

about 65 km of which an 18-km stretch falls in the city limits.

 

The upper reaches of the river, running for a length of 35 km, will be restored

under the World Bank-assisted Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation and Water

Bodies Restoration and Management (IAMWARM), while the remaining tail-end part

may be restored by the Sathya Sai Trust.

 

Source: The Times of India

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chennai/TN_to_take_Sai_Babas_help_to_clean_up\

/articleshow/4108735.cms