Madurai Family Planning Association - Madurai FPAI

Madurai Family Planning Association Branch has established its reputation as the best choice centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Family Planning services to the people of the second largest city in Tamil Nadu, India. The Branch is managed by committed volunteers and dedicated staff who provide their talents and professional inputs into activities. The FPAI Madurai is situated in the heart of the city in its own building. Its social goal is to empower communities to exercise their health needs, rights and make decisions.

MISSION STATEMENT

FPAI provides a voluntary, non-governmental commitment to promoting sexual and reproductive rights and health, including family planning and child health. It strives to meet unmet needs and creates demand for quality services and care among men, women and young people.

Know more in the website

Madurai Machan Publication Business celebrating ONE YEAR

Madurai Machan Team is very glad to inform everyone that Madurai Machan Publication Business has just crossed one year by May 1st 2007. The team is doing great and enjoying what they have been doing. Now that they have reached one milestone, the team is very excited.

If you have not seen madurai machan website, please check it out - here at maduraimachan.com

Thanks to all the visitors for your continued support and we request your support all the times forward as well.

Also check out the vision and mission of Madurai Machan Business.

Vision:

To build a successful movie entertainment portal and publication business, which will be 100% entertaining to the indian and NRI visitors from all over the world.

Mission:

We will achieve this aim of building the successful publication business by working together as a team, part-time, but in a very professional way for two purposes - one is to serve the society by entertainment and sharing the profits. Another is to generate revenues and become popular.

Thirst for business action

Every individual should have thirst for doing business and becoming an entrepreneur. Becoming an entrepreneur has to be the passion. Becoming an entrepreneur is like planting and growing a tree. That has huge advantages to everyone, in addition to the person who planted it.

At some point of life in every man and woman, he/she should consider doing this. I am sure you guessed the reason I compared entrepreneurship with growing trees.

If a tree grows, there will be profits for the owner of the garden with fruits and other essential elements of profit. At the same time, the tree gives shadow to lots of people who stand under it. At the sametime, the tree is very eco-friendly and pleasant and it makes the environment cycle function well.

Similarly, in entrepreneurship, it gives employment to one or more people. The business produces profits and salaries to various shareholders and employees. Also the business produces benefits to other smaller dependant businesses. It grows the economy and does do some contribution, if not zero.

This thirst is necessary for the soceity and its growth. Please plant trees..sorry entrepreneurship seeds everywhere possible.

As Trees for the environment, Business is for Economy.

thank you

Corrupt Madurai RTO Office: Had to Bribe in 2000

Please note that the below story is about an incident happenned in 2000. I am NOT sure about the current situation in Madurai RTO office. But please read on about the real incident in the past.

Corrupt Madurai RTO Office: Did Bribing in the year 2000
This dates back to year 2000. Right after my college and my company placement I had training in a local driving school and managed to get trained for 30 days - two and four wheeler training.

I appeared on the day of the license. I did pass in my driving tests. While standing in queue for the application, I had to pay Rs.20 for republic day stamp. I crossed 2 tables and had to pay atleast Rs.20 to Rs.30 to the officers desk.

This is somewhere in the middle of year 2000. I am not sure what is the situation now in Madurai RTO office. This happenned in Bye-Pass Road - South Madurai.

I had to pay because everyone paid. If I don't pay the bribe, I cannot get my license. In fact, I saw the officers in their khakhi pants and white shirts, we going past the queue, when the things are happenning.

I remember it clearly, but I cannot do anything. This happenned in every government office in Madurai. Why should I pay for the government services, provided by the government servants, who are getting paid as salary by the government.

This should change! I heard from someone that these days they don't ask for bribe. Good to hear that and I wish it remains the same.

As said by Tamil Film Director Shankar in his movie "Indian" - casted by actor padmashree Kamalhassan - he says Officers abroad get "lanjam"(bribe), for not doing or overriding some rules and laws, But Officers in India are getting money for doing their duty in India.

God Bless Madurai and overall India!

Madurai under the clutches of rowdies and gangsters

Madurai under the clutches of rowdies and gangsters:

The below viewpoint explains about the majority of Madurai and not all of the local politicians and not all the administrative officials are like the way it is explained below. There are definitely some honest people. Please read on ....

Today every officer and a local politician has to listen to rowdies, criminals and gangsters. Every decision is directed by these RCG (Rowdies, Criminals and Gangsters).

An administrative official is not able to do his duty, due to pressure from various entities in Madurai. Even the local politicians have to ask the RCGs, before doing anything good to people.

On one hand, the local politicians are selfish and try to accumulate their wealth. In another hand, the administrative officials need money to do their duty. On top of all these RCGs pressure these functionaries, for every execution of tasks.

In fact RCGs are one of the main cause of these corruption and costing behaviour.

Overall, who is affected?! None other than the Madurai people. Madurai's economy. Madurai's production...

We need leaders to crash all these inefficient elements. We need rules and orders to make things effective. We need punishments for everyone to abide by the rules of the government.

Educational Quality in Madurai - to be improved...

"Ninety per cent of engineering students in the State, despite possessing adequate knowledge, are still not job-ready. The students need to work more to improve their professional and soft skills," Prof. E. Balagurusamy, vice-chancellor, Anna University, said today.

This factor emerged in the first cycle of the State-wide placement programme initiated by the university this year.

Of the 1,975 students from 168 colleges in the Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai regions, who were screened by the information technology majors, Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant Technology Solutions and Wipro, only 207 found placement.

Tamil Nadu has over 220 self-financing colleges. Of them only 168 could sent students who were eligible or met the criteria set by the three IT companies for the Statewide recruitment. Finally, the selected students were only from 81 colleges. The other colleges could not get even one of their students recruited in the leading multinationals.

Poor Communication

"From the feedback we get, it is clear that even students having enough knowledge do not possess communication skills and the courage and confidence required to get a job in TCS or Wipro ... Some students could not even initiate a discussion when they sat before the recruiters," Prof. Balagurusamy told newspersons after inaugurating another cycle of recruitment here.

Looks like our students are not trained on the communication, presentation and other skills...while they acquire the knowledge in the college or school...

Strengths of Madurai - Untapped Market in Madurai

Sponsored by OruAcre.com

People are very Good by heart - They are innocent and want to help others. High Hospitality people

Potential for All the industries to come in - news, media, manufacturing, IT, ITeS, healthcare, pharmaceutical etc.,

Cheap Realestate, even though infrastructure has to be improved

Cheap quantitative and qualitative human resource

Untapped Youth resources and Student power in anything.

Untapped ladies at home, Housewives and old people time and effort

If we get proper funds from the central or state government, we can plan better and do something effective in Madurai

Huge consumer market for various FMCGs, Retail, IT - hardware and software

Since it has a historical significance and it dates back to Athens, we have a huge potential on Tourism.

We just have to regularize toursim a bit, to welcome the tourists

Like I listed above, there are many advantageous points for Madurai. All we have to do is put together and make some action...

more to come in following articles to be posted...check out the website again for more strengths of Madurai...

Madurai Map - provided by Yahoo India

Did you know we can drill down to the streets level using Yahoo India Maps?!

yes, that is true. Recently Yahoo India has released a version of Yahoo India Maps, using which we can see the street level maps of India.

Click here for Madurai Map in Tamil Nadu, India
You can try to drill down more and see...Just Maps or Hybrid, Satellite...

Isn't that exciting?!

Problems in Madurai - Part II

Here are the problems I think Madurai has -

Attitude of the people...There is a very narrow thinking and never thinks of productivity. Trying to be lazy. Not doing the work properly. Very conservative...Priorities are trivial and not very productive....Never allow others to progress...

Illiteracy....Not much education...Less awareness among people...

Health issues...Due to lack of awareness and poverty, there are many health issues... have already discussed as a separate topic in previous articles...

Population....Too many births...Not being aware about the population control programmes...

Poverty...There is a huge percentage still under poveryt line..Not even having the basic things like - food, water and shelter!!

Government....Till now there had been never a very good government for making the city productive...

Corrupt Administration...Administration had been corrupt at most of the times and things...Never been a very clean administration. Every point and node is corrupt in the administrative system of the government...Even if the administration is clean, the politicians never leave them alone...

Rowdism, Gangism...Not much law and order is maintained...Many Robberies, rapes, Crimes. Every one tries to take weapons - Aruval(Sickle kind of knife)...Police is corrupt even...So there is not much law and order maintained....

Definitely not environmental friendly...

Brain Drain...All the best human resources move out of the city...to madras/chennai, bangalore, hyderabad, mumbai, America/abroad....

Very few people follow rules...Even take for example traffic rules...very less people follow it...

Amidst all these, many are lazy and not being productive...just laze around and being a load to the earth's gravity...

I am sometimes very angry about the above facts...Sometimes I become very pity to the people...sometimes feeling like doing something for these people, which I will eventually do...
Sometimes I become emotional and even shed tears thinking about the situation...
Anyway, whatever it is - we should do some action to get rid of these problems...We should knock these problems out and become a strong city and stand as an example to the state, country...and in fact to the world...

If this continues in every city, we will never become a developed nation, and always remain a third world country...

in fact, most of these issues are discussed in newmadurai.in and aimed to be solved in a long-term. Check out http://www.newmadurai.in

I will be talking about the potential advantages in Madurai, in my next article...

Problems in Madurai - Part I

Here is a text from wikipedia.org, which states about the present problems in Madurai -

Unlike many other historical cities that have been reduced to small towns, hamlets and ruins in the modern age, Madurai still remains a "city" and a major regional hub of commerce. However, it is a concerning fact that it has failed to achieve the progress it should have and its city ranking has sunk in the past few decades. Not only has it failed to attract new domestic and foreign investments, but it has also failed to capitalize on its inherent strengths.
Though there is no dearth of talent in Madurai, thanks to the Engineering and Science colleges in the city, it has not been able to retain the pool of qualified professionals. During the years following the Information Technology boom that swept across the country, the city saw an exodus of professionals to other urban centers, such as Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, which offered them better opportunities.

Many blame the state government for limiting industrial development to northern Tamil Nadu, Chennai and its adjacent districts in particular, and cite this as the reason southern Tamil Nadu is industrially underdeveloped. While this claim may not be totally invalid, the main reason Madurai is industrially underdeveloped lies in the fact that there is a definite lack of initiative and poor self-esteem amongst the local populace. The elite and professionals who ought to guide their fellow citizens into the new economy shrug away from their responsibilities, and worse, move to other cities looking for greener pastures and settle down there.

I shall talk about the problems and strengths I think Madurai has....

Madurai filled with Superstitions

Things should change. While there are many things to be changed or transformed in Madurai, here is one thing I would like to mention here in this article. Superstitious believes has to be changed and more rational thoughts has to be in people's heads.

Some of the instances are here -
1. If someone sits on a pillow, they say we will get into debts.
2. If we shake the lock of the door, father and mother would fight or argue on some point it seems.
3. If the baby bites her leg toes, then it is not good for the mother's brother.

these are just samples...Even very educated people are listening to vaasthu - changing their kitchen into reading room and reading room is becoming kitchen...I am not sure why do even educated persons change, due to the society. People are not rational in their thinking. This is probably due to societal pressure.

Still people are checking out ashtami, dasami, navami and checking calendars for doing things. If there is something good to be done, why do you check for good times. All times are good times.

These are some of the things, which block the productivity of the people, the state and the country!

These are definitely some of the reasons, we will remain as a third world country and never become a developed nation!!:-????

What a crazy idea?

Within 5 years timeframe, anybody who does not have a colour television will be given a colour television by the government!! This is what the ruling government respected Chief Minister Dr. Kalaignar Karunanidhi says to tamil nadu people.

In 5 years, there won't be anybody in tamil nadu without a color television, it seems. In total the budget seems to be 750 crores for this particular project.

What is the use? What a non-productive idea?! Will this make people work more and make the state and country gain more or even the people won't get prosperous? Instead people will become dumb...Will people understand what a flaw-filled policy this is?! Whose money is all these?! Who is approving this? Did People approve this? It's all tax money of the properly tax paying middle-class people.

Please think about it!! and open as many eyes as possible!

Watch this video for Respected Chief Minister's speech on this...

Tamil Nadu Political Joke

I happenned to see this tamil nadu political joke...

Enjoy watching the song between Dr. Kalaignar Karunanidhi and Dr. J Jayalalitha...
Take it lightly, if you are a party person!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssTdyW6YuDk&mode=related&search=

YouTube Tamil Cultural DYNAMIC MARRIAGE

I want you to watch this Tamil Cultural Dynamic marriage! I am not sure if all these crap happenning in tamil nadu or not! Or is it all just staged?! Not sure...

But see it for yourself....I just laughed at it to the core...:-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umojiUlVAso&mode=related&search

Labour day Special: Madurai to be child labour free

Labour day Special: Madurai to be child labour free

The Madurai district administration has planned to declare the madurai district "child labour-free" on June 30, 2005.

A decision to this effect was taken at the District Convergence Meeting where representatives from Inspectorate of Factories, Department of Labour, Revenue, Rural Development, Social Welfare, Education, Public Works, Highways, Family Welfare, Information and Public Relations, Madurai Corporation, Municipalities, Executive Officers of upgraded panchayats, non-governmental organisations, self-help groups, trade unions and business establishments participated. Action to be initiated against the violators of the norms under the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act 1986 was discussed at the meeting.

The administration appealed to the public to report incidents of child labour.

But still incidents of CHILD LABOUR is happenning in and around Madurai. If you notice any incident, please report to the police.

This is very important to our society and our country's future.

About Madurai Corporation

MADURAI CORPORATION



The entire Madurai corporation administration is broadly divided into 2 district wings. They are deliberative wing and executive wing. Some decades ago,the deliberative wing had only limited controls over the administration with little powers.That now having democracy as the basis ,The deliberative wing has more powers to control the administration. For example the elected body not only formulates policy to be followed by the administration but also decides on appointments ,promotion ,disciplinary appeals etc .,and approve budget and expenditure.

Madurai Corporation deliberative wing consists of a Council with all the councilors as Members and 6 standing Committees. The elected council period is 5 years .Each standing committee has one Chairman and 5 members. The members of the Committees are elected by the council by secret ballot. The chairman of the each committee are elected by the members of that committee. The period of the office of the Chairman is one year.

Apart from these committees, two councilors are elected by the Council as members of the Tax Appeal Committee which disposes the tax appeals preferred by the tax payers.The Appointment committee consists of Mayor, Commissioner and Councilor elected by council as members.The same committee will function as Disciplinary Appeal Committee which disposes appeals preferred by the employees against the punishments imposed on them by the Corporation authority. The Council has powers to appoint committee on specific issues.The Act also provides joint committees to discuss issues common to 2 or more Committees.In the absence of elected council, special officer appointed by the Government will function as council and committees.

Executive Wing
The Commissioner is the Chief Executive of the Corporation.The Commissioner is appointed by the Government .Generally, an Officer of Indian Administrative Service is appointed as Commissioner. The Commissioner has over all control of the Corporation Administration. The MCMC act 1971 clearly gives several powers to the Commissioner to carry out all the functions of the Corporation. But his powers are restricted subject to the approval of the Council and the Committees as the case may be.

The entire Corporation administration is divided into several Departments. Each department is specifically assigned one or more functions .Each department functions under the control of a Class I officer .The Class-I Officers functions under the direct control of the Commissioner.
To assist the Class-I Officer most of the departments are having Class- II Officers .Also Each Department is having Class-III and Class -IV Employees.

The Different Department of the Corporation are given below:-
1. General Administration and Endowments.2. The Council wing3. Engineering Section(Roads & Buildings)4. Engineering (Water Supply & Drainage)5. Accounts section (w&d)6. Engineering Section(Electricity)7. Accounts Section(Electricity)8. Health Section9. Town Planning section10. Revenue Section11. Accounts Section(General)12. Tax Appeal Section13. Education Section

General Administration and Endowments
The General Administration is headed by the Assistant Commissioner who is on Corporation employee. Under him the following wings are functioning.
1. General Establishment Section2. Record Section and Stationery3. Treasury.4. Fair Copy Section
Apart from General Establishment ,works relating to endowments, rest houses ,Auditorium ,Kalyana Mandapams,Welfare Programmes and Elections are looked after by him. The Assistant Commissioner is generally assisting the Commissioner in the administration.
The entire Madurai Corporation administration is broadly divided into two wings:
Deliberative wingExecutive wing.
The Deliberative wing consists of a Council with all the Councilors as Members and Six Standing Committees. The elected Council period is 5 years. Each Standing Committee has one Chairman and 10 members. The members of the Committees are elected by the Council and the Chairman of the Committee is elected by the members of the Committee. Apart from these Committees there is one Appointment Committee consisting of Mayor, Commissioner and a Councilor elected by Council. In the absence of elected Council special officer appointed by the Government will function as Council and Committees.

Executive Wing: The Commissioner is the Chief Executive of the Corporation. The Commissioner is appointed by the government . Generally, an Officer of Indian Administrative Service is appointed as Commissioner. The Commissioner has overall control of the Corporation Administration.

The entire Corporation administration is divided into several departments. Each department is specially assigned one or more functions. Each department functions under the control of the Commissioner.
The different departments of the Corporation are given below:
1. Engineering Wing2. Health Wing3. Accounts Wing4. Revenue Wing5. General Administration6. Town Planning wing7. Ward offices (four)8. Education - Schools

Health Wing:
This wing functions under the control of City Health Officer. To assist the City Health Officer Assistant Health Officer, Medical Officers, Circle Sanitary Officers, Sanitary Inspectors, etc. are functioning.

ACCOUNTS WING
The Accounts wing is functioning under the control of one Assistant Commissioner (Accounts) and to assist the Assistant Commissioner there are three Accounts Officer with functions as follows:
Accounts Officer (General) : General Fund transactions and General budgetary controlAccounts Officer (Treasury & Pension) : Looks after the treasury functions and pension payment.Accounts Officer (Water supply & Drainage): Water supply and Drainage Fund transactions and budgetary control for it.
REVENUE WING
The Revenue wing of Madurai Corporation is functioning under the control of Assistant Commissioner (Revenue) and the Revenue is generated from the following sources:
1. Property Tax2. Profession Tax3. Advertisement Tax4. Sunshade Tax5. Encroachment fees6. Rent, lease etc.

TOWN PLANNING
One of the sectors which attribute to the development of urban areas and the important factor is urban land use development. Unless, it is regulated with regulatory measures not only hapazard growth will erupt. With a view to control this the Government have enacted Acts and rules.

LEGAL BACKING
For Madurai city area, the "Madurai City Municipal Corporation Act 1971" has been enacted. This Act deals with the formation and declaration of public and private streets and the regulation of buildings.
The "Town and Country Planning Act 1971" takes care of regulating the land use pattern.The Town Planning wing is regulating the provisions of these Acts by.. by approving plans as per rule. Upto 1500 sq.ft. the plansare approved in the Ward Offices and for buildings morethan 1500 Sq.ft. the plans are scrutinised and approvedin the main office... By assisting Local Planning Authority in preparing detaileddevelopment plans for the thrust areas.. By detecting unauthorised constructions and to take legalaction against them.. By evicting encroachments.
Further the Town Planning wing prepares Project reports pertaining to Urban Development works and maintains the Corporation immovable properties and survey land records.

REGULATORY MEASURES:
Planning permits are issued based on the following rules and regulations:
Building rules 1942Master Plan ruleDetailed development Plan RulesMulti Storeyed Building rulesParking Byelaw regulationsHeight restriction regulations.
Madurai city has been declared as HERITAGE TOWN because of the location of Meenakshi Amman Temple. To preserve the aesthetic view of the temple towers the Government have enacted regulations restricting the height of the buildings, to 9 Meters within one kilometer radius from the temple and to 15 meters upto the city limit.

The Council Wing
The Council Wing is functioning under the control of Secretary of the Council .This wing is responsible for the preparation of Agenda for the meetings of the Council and Committees. On the advice of the Committee Chairman/Mayor/Special Officer. The Secretary of the Council is responsible for convening and conducting the meetings of the Council/Committees.
The section is responsible for the naming the building and streets, conducting the elections of co-opted members ,members of different committees Chairman of Committees ,Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
The grievance petitions from the public are processed in this section. Secretary to Council is also responsible to make arrangements to celebrate all the functions of Corporation of Madurai.

ENGINEERING SECTION (WATER SUPPLY & DRAINAGE)
The water supply and Drainage section is functioning under the control of the Corporation Engineer who is from the Corporation in to the cadre of Executive Engineer. One Assistant Executive Engineer and 6 Junior Engineer's are functioning under the control of Corporation Engineers .The Important functions of this section are:-
1.Extracting filtered water from different Head works and the protected water obtained from vaigai scheme and Distributing protected water.2.Digging maintaining and repairing of borewells and well water supply maintenance.3.providing protected water house connections and public fountains and drainage house connections.4.Supply of water to public toilets and pay&use toilets.5.Supply of water to unserved areas through lorries.6.Construction and maintenance of underground drainage system.7.Construction of open drains.8.Maintanence of Public and Office parks and Traffic islands.9.Maintanence of sewage farm at Avaniapuram and Sankimangalam
Complaints regarding sewerage & drainage will be attended swiftly
a) Blockage of sewer line - within one hour.b) Overflowing of sewer line - within one hour.c) Repair of damaged sewer line - on the same day.d) Removal of blockage in drainage - on the same day.e) Minor repairs of drains - on the same day.f) Major repairs of the drais - according to the time bound programmeg) De-silting of drainage - April to September.

Accounts Section(W&D)
The Account Section is functioning under the control of Accounts Officer (W&D) who is on deputation from Treasuries and Accounts Department. This Department is responsible for the maintenance of water supply and drainage Accounts, payment of salary to the staff, maintaining pension, gratuity account etc. The section is also responsible for the receipt of Grants and loans for the water supply and drainage schemes from Government. Accounts Officer (W&D) is also responsible for collection of charges of water supply and drainage.