CHENNAI: Ward councillors raised concerns about the poor maintenance of parks and attributed it to a delay in renewing maintenance contracts, at the council meeting at Ripon Building on Thursday. In response, GCC Mayor R Priya said that tenders will soon be issued in three packages for parks’ upkeep.
The councillors said that whenever they try to contact the private contractors in charge of park maintenance, they are not available. Councillor of Ward 143 V Rajan suggested that the maintenance of parks could be handed over to the corporation’s NULM staff.
The issue of burial grounds in the city being in bad shape due to a lack of caretakers was also raised at the meeting. Priya responded that a mass cleaning drive would be taken up at the burial grounds in the next two days.
A few councillors also said that the vending zones were set up without consulting the public and the councillors concerned. The carts installed in front of houses, schools and hotels have inconvenienced the public, they said.
R Stella Jasmine Rathna, Councillor of Ward 123, said she was not briefed about the vending and non-vending zones in her own ward. To this, the mayor said that circulars will be sent to the Assistant Revenue Officers asking them to consult the councillors before designating vending and non-vending zones.
To the concern that ID cards were being issued to four vendors of the same family and many deserving vendors were getting left out as a result, the mayor directed the officials to check if fake cards were used by vendors and if so, to cancel their license.
The other key issues raised included missing links in stormwater drains, sewage overflow, damaged street name boards, iand ncreased compensation for NULM staff, among others.