COIMBATORE: Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) Mayor Kalpana Anandakumar slammed south zone officials for being negligent and irresponsible in addressing the issues in the zone and went on to call it the worst zone in the city.
The CCMC's south zone review meeting was held at the zonal office in Kuniyamuthur on Friday. The meeting was presided over by Mayor Kalpana along with Deputy Mayor Vetriselvan and South Zone Chairperson R Dhanalakshmi. South zone officials, including Zonal Assistant Commissioner N Annadurai, were present in the meeting along with the 20 councillors of south zone.
Ward 89 councillor K Murugesan pointed out that drinking water issues have been very less in the past as his ward was in former minister SP Velumani's constituency but now, the issue has affected the people. He demanded the officials to take action in this regard.
Ward 100 and 99 councillors Karthikeyan and Aslam Basha asked the officials to control stray dog population and stray pig menace in their wards. Ahmed Kabir of ward 86 intervened and asked the officials to catch the cows roaming the streets and creating traffic congestion.
Deputy Mayor R Vetriselvan of ward 92, who is also from the South Zone, said, "TWAD board officials have been carrying out pipeline works on the Edayarpalayam Pirivu road and Podanur junction road for ages. The works are being carried out at a snail's pace. Once a road is dug, the work must be finished soon and the road patched up as soon as possible."
With the monsoon about to begin, all councillors demanded the officials to desilt stormwater drains and clear clogged drains to prevent the streets from flooding. Councillors also asked the officials to start and finish the work before the rain.
In response to this, the south zone AC asked the engineering department to prepare estimates for desilting the drainages across the zone and start the work soon. One of the most debated topics in the meeting was clearing the garbage from streets and drinking water issues. All the councillors from the Zone demanded Mayor's intervention in the matter. Councillors also complained about the negligence and irresponsible behaviour of the South Zone officials in addressing people's problems.
South zone chairperson Dhanalakshmi said, "The supervisor is under suspension, sanitary workers have gone on leave and the garbage collection trucks are in the workshop for repair works. None of the officials is cooperating with the councillors."
Mayor Kalpana, who was also unimpressed by officials' response, said, "Many officials have not come. So what's the purpose of this meeting? The officials who are present at the meeting are just giving excuses. Give sanitary workers' list to all the councillors. All south zone officials must come to the CCMC head office on Monday. I'll organise a meeting with the Commissioner and take further action. Of all the zones I reviewed, this is the worst zone. None of the officials is responding properly or doing their work. None of the contracts should be given to old contractors. Black list the contractors who have done a poor job in the past."
"Suez works are slow. You must have finished 75% but only 20% of the work has been finished till now. We can lay roads only if the pipeline works are completed. Don't dig any roads in future without councillors' knowledge. The CCMC's main problem now is the Suez. Get extra workers and finish the works soon," she told the Suez officials.