Chandy works without break for 20 hours

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has registered a record of sorts by conducting a marathon mass contact programme in the coastal district of Alappuzha without a break for 20 hours. He began the programme that has reached the 12th district at 9.30 am on Thursday with a brief introduction and went on to meet petitioners numbering around 35,000 one by one till the clock stuck 5.50 next day. In the process, he skipped his meals and sustained only on tender coconut water.After finishing the programme, mostly distributing aid for the destitute, he left for Kochi for a meeting on the Kochi Metro, one of the prestigious infrastructure projects of his government. He then proceeded to Trivandrum where a series of meetings were awaiting him including the issue of stinking city where people have no place to dump solid waste after the local village council council forced closure of the waste management plant at Vilappilsala. Chandy launched his district-level mass contact programme on Nov.5 from Kozhikode and its next stops would be Kannur and Idukki which is expected to attract more people in the wake of the controversy over the safety of the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam.Though Gujarat Chief Minist Narendra Modi and Andhra leader Chandrababu Naidu had organised similar programmes none attracted this much of people before whom the doors of bureaucracy remains shut.His fans are now planning to approach the Guinness of Book of World Records authorities to get the programme listed as the world’s biggest programme solving various issues of people in a single go. Before Alappuzha, the biggest draw was Ernakulam where he gave patient hearing to 20,000 people in distress nonstop for 9 hours and distributed Rs16million.“I never find it difficult for me to be in the midst of the people and try and solve their problems. I never feel tired when I spend my time with people, hearing their grievances and find success in solving them,” Chandy said.