The district administration has disposed of 3,787 of the 12,573 petitions received under ‘Chief Minister in Your Constituency’ programme in the 100 days after Chief Minister M. K. Stalin assumed office on May 7.
As many as 1,058 persons, who had sought monthly assistance of ₹1,000 under various categories, have received orders while 738 others have got free house sites.
According to Collector V. Vishnu, the petitions received from the public seeking drinking water, road, street lights, etc., were handed over to the Department of Rural Development for action following verification through field visits and these demands had been fulfilled on an outlay of ₹17 crore for the benefit of nearly 40,000 families.
Eighteen rural entrepreneurs had received ₹58.88 lakh assistance through the District Industries Centre for starting business ventures that include agro-based and service sector industries.
Sewing machines had been given to 180 women beneficiaries as part of the livelihood programme and 90 persons, all from below poverty line families, had been given houses through Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, the Collector said.
The most interesting feature is disbursal of free housing plots to beneficiaries who received plots measuring about 3 cents. Instead of giving unmarked plots to beneficiaries in a land situated in an inaccessible area, the district administration had taken efforts to clean the land earmarked for the purpose and have sliced it into plots.
Now, the State government has asked all Collectors to follow this method of giving free house sites so that the beneficiaries could start construction of houses immediately.
The Collector said 225 persons who were undergoing treatment at private hospitals for COVID-19 had received insurance benefit of ₹3.30 crore under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme. While more than 4.25 lakh persons had been vaccinated, 854 oxygen-supported beds had been created at government hospitals in the past 100 days apart from oxygen-supported beds at Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital.
The COVID-19 relief of ₹185.23 crore had been given to 4,63,070 cardholders and over 28 lakh women had travelled in town buses after the State government had introduced free travel for them.
When ‘Vanakkam Nellai’ grievance redressal system was introduced in the district with WhatsApp number 97865 66111 for submitting petitions, 1,458 petitions were received from the public and action had been taken on 792 petitions.
Tirunelveli had become the first district in the State to introduce GIS-based mapping of waterbodies under the control of Public Works Department, rural development and local bodies. After mapping 1,200 waterbodies, steps have been taken to desilt and maintain them, Mr. Vishnu added.
