VELLORE: The Rotary Club of Gudiyattam (Club), led by president J K N Palani, announced several schemes for the welfare of the town in the areas of health, greening of the town, water conservation and hygiene at a function held on Saturday to mark the occasion of a new team being appointed.
School Education minister, K C Veeramani, was the chief guest on the occasion.
Palani, the 30th president of the Club announced that one of the measures the Club would launch is ‘Green Gudiyattam’ - a drive to plant 5,000 trees in the town. Names of the persons who contributed `500 or more for the scheme will be displayed on the tree-guard, he added.
The Rotary Club will also establish a ‘people’s clinic’ to provide integrated health care to citizens of the town at a subsidized cost. He said that a dialysis unit would also be installed for the care of patients with kidney-related issues “whose numbers are on the increase.”
“We will employ best medical consultants to offer best services,” he added.
The Club will also launch an initiative to ensure health camps to screen patients for breast-cancer and anaemia and in order to promote organ donation, the Club has taken the initiative to motivate around 1,000 persons this year.
“We also want to create awareness about simple social etiquette among the school children such as using handkerchief while coughing or sneezing, hand-washing before taking food and after visiting toilets, using sanitary napkin incinerators in the school etc through a yearlong ‘sanitation campaign,’” said Palani.
To revive the dying Koundanya river, a tributary of Palar, that passes through Gudiyattam, the club would launch a ‘Clean River’ project not only to protect and revive the river but also to cleanse it. Encroachments would be removed and the River would be ‘greened’ so that people of this town could take pride in the river that has sustained the people of this region, he added.
Recalling efforts taken by the Rotary Club in initiating the desilting and beautification of the centuries old Robinson tank in association with the municipality at a cost of Rs 2 crore, he said that further measures will be taken to build this tank into being one of the biggest rainwater harvesting systems in the district. “This tank, if it gets filled up during this monsoon, it is expected to solve the water crisis looming large in the town,” he pointed out.
The club also aims to organize a mega job fair in association with the district employment office for the benefit of the unemployed educated youth of this town. “We will invite local and other companies from Chennai and other cities to offer jobs,” he added.