TIRUPPUR: Staff crunch has affected the functioning of the newly-formed Avinashi Municipality in Tiruppur district, with the public and social activists saying that the shortage of officials is causing delays in processing applications.
GV Ravikumar, president of Nallathu Nanbargal Trust, said, “Avinashi city has a population of around 40,000 and it was upgraded from a town panchayat to a municipality a few months ago. Following the upgrade, all officials under the town panchayat administration were transferred to other town panchayats. The posts of officials for municipal administration, however, have not been filled. This has affected the public.”
“The government has appointed commissioner of Karumathampatti Municipality in Coimbatore as the commissioner in-charge of Avinashi Municipality. No officers have been appointed to any other posts. All key posts, including deputy commissioner, accounts officer, council secretary, public relations officer, administrative officer, revenue officer, superintendent, assistant revenue officer, and municipal planning officer have not been filled. As a result, there is a delay in acting on petitions and applications submitted by the public,” Ravikumar added.
“With the delay in appointing officers, we feel the move to upgrade Avinashi to a municipality may have been taken in a hurry only to increase the tax slab.
“Firstly, the government should have appointed the officials and upgraded the town panchayat to a municipality. People have been severely affected by the current situation, and the government must act immediately,” he added.
S Karan, a resident of Avinashi, said, “It has been over two weeks since I applied for a correction in my niece’s birth certificate, but no action has been taken yet.”
KT Bharathi, Commissioner (in-charge) of the Avinashi Municipality said, “The posts are likely to be filled soon. The municipal engineers are yet to be appointed as engineers who were under the town panchayat administration have been transferred.
As the software update process is also under way, there may be slight delays in municipal works. These issues exist in all areas that have been upgraded from town panchayats to municipalities, and they will be fixed soon.”