AIADMK manifesto skips key demands, say Trichiites

Trichy: AIADMK's election manifesto has turned out to be a damp squib for Trichy, with residents fuming over the opposition party ignoring key infrastructure demands of the nine constituencies here. While pending promises, such as service roads for the 14.5km stretch of Trichy-Thanjavur national highway, which cause frequent fatal accidents, have not found a place, even fresh demands to improve the urban infrastructure of Trichy's constituencies have been neglected in the manifesto.Except for cost-friendly residential apartments for middle-class families, a police welfare hospital, and Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar rivers interlinking project, the opposition party's manifesto has nothing specific for the Trichy region. The existing defence industrial corridor, in which Trichy is one of the nodes, has found mention, but Trichy has been part of the project since 2019. "The opposition party seems to be non-reactive to key infrastructure demands and development-oriented projects of Trichy. For a long time, a separate TNSTC division for Trichy and inclusion in metro rail proposals were raised to streamline urban commute challenges, but AIADMK has ignored such demands in the manifesto," Ghouse Baig, a consumer rights activist from Trichy, said. While three elevated road projects to decongest Trichy city have been pending for the last five years, the manifesto has not shed light on road transport challenges and solutions in the city. Though a committee to draft the election manifesto met the public in Trichy a few months ago, locals claimed that the demands submitted have not reflected in the manifesto. "We met senior AIADMK functionaries and handed out our demand for service roads on Trichy-Thanjavur NH, but the infrastructure section in the manifesto did not even make a passing reference," K Rajendran, general secretary, Federation for Retrieval of Trichy Palpannai–Thuvakudi Service Road, said.