The State government on Friday informed the Madras High Court that it has sent a proposal to the Union Ministry of Tourism seeking ₹563.50 crore for the overall development of Mamallapuram township and that the quantum includes ₹232 crore to be provided to iconic tourism sites under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme (SDS) funded fully by the Centre.
The submission was made in a status report filed before a Division Bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and M.S. Ramesh who were seized of a suo motu public interest litigation petition. The case was taken up by the court last year, at the instance of Justice N. Kirubakaran, for beautification of the township known for its ancient monuments and archaeological sites.
Special Government Pleader J. Pothiraj submitted the status report filed on behalf of the Tourism as well as Municipal Administration Secretaries along with the minutes of a joint committee meeting held in the Secretariat on November 11 for assessing quantum of finances required to ensure proper upkeep and maintenance of Mamallapuram township.
Secretaries of the Finance, Tourism and Municipal Administration Departments had attended the meet in which the Director of Town Panchayats informed that the annual income of Mamallapuram township, from various sources including collection of toll, was ₹7.22 crore. The income was sufficient to manage day to day expenditure.
The State government had spent ₹4.82 crore during Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Mamallapuram last year apart from another ₹4.45 crore sanctioned for taking up various development works during 2018-19 and 2019-20. The Director also stated that 102 sanitary workers had been engaged to keep the township clean.
Further, 17 reverse osmosis plants, eight overhead tanks, 13 wells, 99 borewells and 22 handpumps had been established for water supply.
The State government had also sanctioned ₹3.48 crore for 2020-21 for the development works in Mamallapuram. Apart from this, another ₹8 crore would be sanctioned for improvement and renovation of damaged roads.
G.O. issued
A government order had been issued on November 13 sanctioning ₹1,000 crore for restoration of damaged roads across the State and the requirement for Mamallapuram would be accommodated under it, the court was told. It was also informed that the government had permitted revision of toll rates collected from motor vehicles entering or passing through the township.
As per the revised rates, the town panchayat had been permitted to collect ₹15 from two-wheelers, ₹75 from cars, ₹100 from tourist vans and ₹125 from tourist buses. The revision would yield approximately ₹1.7 crore annually and would be useful for proper upkeep of the township, the government claimed.
Stating that it was yet to come out of the financial crunch caused by the breakout of COVID-19, the State government said, it was still willing to contribute its share of money if the Centre releases necessary funds under different schemes. On her part, Central Government Standing Counsel Sunita Kumari said the Centre had allocated ₹5,109 crore under SDS.
Unhappy with such “bureaucratic replies,” the judges directed the Centre to come up with a specific figure that had been allotted for beautification of Mamallapuram. They also insisted that Advocate General Vijay Narayan and Additional Solicitor General R. Sankaranarayanan should represent the State and Centre respectively during the next hearing of the case.
