CHENNAI: The Tambaram Municipal Corporation Council meeting held on Friday was dominated by complaints raised by councillors regarding “unjustified” and “irrational” collection of water and property taxes, and stray dog menace.
DMK councillor R Raja of Ward 44 alleged that several residents had received water tax demand notices though they did not have water connection. Similarly, several property owners were perplexed by the revised property tax notices issued to them with steep hike in tax without proper justification, he said. Several councillors urged the corporation to take immediate steps to resolve the issues.
Commissioner S Balachander said that in some places residents were using unauthorised water connections without paying tax and in a few other places people without water connection were taxed. He also acknowledged that property tax revisions were implemented in some places without thorough inspection.
He assured to take steps to address the issues within three months. He also advised property owners to approach the taxation appeal committee to address their grievances. Mayor K Vasanthakumari chaired the meeting in the presence of Depuy Mayor G Kamaraj.
Addressing concerns about manpower shortage in the civic body, Balachander said 81 of 100 positions in the engineering section were vacant, and private consultants had to be engaged for the task. Recruitment is under way to fill many of these vacancies and new employees are expected to join by the first week of September, he said.
Councillors Jothikumar, Indiran, and Sankar raised concerns about the growing street dog menace. The commissioner said shortage of veterinarians has hampered the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme. “We are taking steps to recruit doctors for sterilisation procedures. Soon, ABC centres will be established in every zone, with two doctors each. We will target sterilising 1,000-1,500 dogs per month,” he said.
Councillors also urged the corporation to expedite desilting of stormwater drains to prevent flooding during monsoon. They also criticised the solid waste management contractor for failing to address residents’ complaints about garbage collection and demanded the termination of his contract.