So many crores for everyone except the poor Chennai pedestrian

Today's newspapers carry the story of the Tamil Nadu Government cutting sharply the money that cinema theatres can collect from patrons all over the State, from January 1, 2007.

The day's stories also include a major plan to revamp urban infrastructure in the Chennai suburbs and Madurai region, involving astronomical sums of money.

Sometime ago, Minister K N Nehru had stated to the media that the State had sought a huge sum to improve transport infrastructure in Chennai -- Rs.1,300 crores to be exact, under the JNNURM.

In all of these announcements, the poor pedestrian of the city gets next to nothing. Take the United Progressive Alliance government's Common Minimum Programme, JNNURM or National Urban Transport Policy and one finds a great deal of discussion on pedestrian facilities. But when it comes to forking out the big bucks, the man (and woman and child) on the street is nowhere!