TIRUCHY: T Muthuselvam and EM Dharmaraj were on Friday elected chairpersons of the city Corporation’s taxation-finance and town planning standing committees respectively. Despite the local holiday on account of the Srirangam temple car festival, members of the two committees who were elected in a council meeting the previous day amid the presence of election officials unanimously chose their chairpersons on Friday.
With the finance committee chairperson now elected, sources said that the Corporation would soon present its budget. "The chairperson and members are likely to hold their sitting in the coming days and would make suggestions for the budget. If everything goes well, we are expecting the budget in the first week of
May," a councillor said.
Meanwhile, city residents opined that the Corporation considers consultations with resident associations and others before the budget. "As the Corporation was not having elected representatives for the past four years, officials presented the budget without any consultation. Now, the Corporation has a council and we
hope the finance committee conducts a sitting with resident associations to get their suggestions for the budget. Such efforts would ensure a better budget," said R Manikandan of Crawford.
The town planning committee on its part should take more steps to ensure the maintenance of existing parks and open gyms, city residents said. "As there was no council for a long time, Corporation officials constructed so many parks and open gyms in the city. Therefore, the town planning committee should stop the construction of more parks and ensure maintenance of the existing ones," said M Manikandam of KK Nagar.