CHENNAI: Corporation of Chennai council that met on Thursday saw heated arguments between the ruling AIADMK and the opposition DMK on shelving an overbridge project at the Opposition Leader MK Stalin’s Assembly constituency of Kolathur.
While the DMK members blamed Mayor ‘Saidai’ S Duraisamy for shelving the project, the Mayor said it was stalled in 2011 when DMK was ruling the council, led by the then Mayor M Subramaniam, now the Saidapet MLA.
“They felt an overbridge was unnecessary in the locality particularly with a subway right behind it (connecting Villivakam),” he said.
Trying to turn the tables on the DMK, Duraisamy alleged that the opposition had staged 56 walkouts in the last five years, besides being evicted 16 times. It was clear from this that the DMK was not keen on discussing public welfare issues.
The meeting that began on a rough note was packed with more of unpleasant exchanges between councillors and vague queries. Commenting on this, Duraisamy alleged that most of them were unaware about their powers. Instead of raising valid questions and issues, the council was more about managing disruptions.
The city will soon get 107 new Amma canteens in addition to the existing 300. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) passed a resolution to introduce these 107 canteens which will provide quality food cheap.
The Corporation authorities will soon inspect locations for these canteens after speaking with the zonal authorities and councillors, the Mayor informed the Council on Thursday.
In a major reform, the Health wing of the civic body was relieved of the duty to manage the Amma Canteens. A district revenue officer (DRO) post has been created for this purpose. A team under the DRO has been assigned various tasks.