TIRUCHY: Residents of the city have been witnessing the laudable field work of new ward councilors within a week of assuming office. From removing garbage to desludging drainage to repairing public toilets, a slew of civic works are already underway to the relief of residents after a long gap.
As the councillor posts have been lying vacant for the past 5 years, it was the officials of the Corporation that ran the show.
Mohammed Riyaz, a resident of Alwarthope, said "When the officials were in charge, they did not do sanitation work beyond a point. They came to the field only if there were any complaints. But now, the councilors have already begun making a difference by paying attention to the ignored areas."
Councillor Kamal Musthafa of Ward 29 was on the field for the past one week with the workers to desludge drainage lines that ran criss-crossing narrow streets of Alwarthope.
Musthafa said, "These drainage lines are unattended for more than a decade causing troubles to the residents during rainfall. If the entire drainage system is cleared of sludge, a major problem of my ward is resolved."
Many of the new councillors start their work as early as 6 am daily. K Suresh Kumar of ward 23 was one among them.
"We preferentially carried out drainage cleaning work due to the rain alert. As I saw it, there are adequate sanitation workers available with the Corporation but there is a serious lack of technicians who have the working knowledge about drainage system and clearing equipment," he pointed out.
T Muthuselvam, councillor of ward 57, was taking care of civic works like road repair and sanitation to facilitate a temple festival at Edamalaipatti Pudur.
Muthuselvam said, "People have started calling up over mobile phone to bring issues in their areas to my attention. I am taking steps to resolve them one by one quickly."
As the corporation has equal number of female councillors than ever before, they also started working to address the issues in their respective wards.
Nagalakshmi, councillor of ward 9, has been making a list of things need to do on the particular day. She gathered details from the people of her ward regarding the civic issues and noted them on a paper.
"Those works that require the officials' intervention have already been taken up to the notice of Corporation office. We are presently doing garbage clearing and drainage works with the help of sanitation workers, especially at the unattended areas," she said.
Councillor Geetha of ward 59 already took up repair work at a toilet complex, which had been in bad condition for long. "As I have received complaints from the residents about anti-social elements at some areas during nights, I immediately fixed the streetlights using my own money."
Most of the councillors created Whatsapp groups by including their ward people to interact with them. At present, those groups are flooded with 'before' and 'after' photos pointing to the previous and present conditions of drainage lines or garbage dumping corners.