MADURAI: The first council meeting of the city corporation after enforcing the policy to ban mobile phones inside the hall, was held on Tuesday. Shortage of labourers and poor condition of roads were again the hotly discussed issues during the meeting.
Mayor Indirani Ponvasanth elaborated on the recent allotment of funds for various development works in two phases. She also said one of the agendas of the previous meeting concerning the promotion of several engineers in the city corporation has been rejected owing to official reasons. While the AIADMK councillors welcomed the decision to reject the agenda, a few DMK councillors opposed it claiming that the promotion of some deserving engineers was getting delayed due to this. In response, corporation commissioner Simranjeet Singh Kahlon said some officials had submitted written objections over the matter and hence an inquiry needed to be conducted.
When the question session began after the mayor's speech, the AIADMK councillors claimed no actions were being taken over the concerns raised during the past 13 meetings and staged a walkout. The councillors raised issues, provision of an additional quantity of wet mix for repairing damaged roads, clearing wastewater in the eco-park tank, desilting of drains, lack of maintenance of garbage collection vehicles, and salary distribution for labourers.
Madurai South MLA M Boominathan, who took part in the meeting, said the shortage of sanitation workers is plaguing several wards. "Laying of pipelines is getting delayed, and basic amenities like sewerage and street lights are not getting adequate attention," he added. Commissioner Kahlon said the deadline for laying pipelines has been fixed as December 10, and other issues will also be looked into.
Later during the meeting, south zone chairman M Mugesh Sharma said many people had taken corporation-owned facilities for rent during the pandemic and those who haven't paid the full rent yet had been issued notices recently. "Considering their hardships, the civic body could consider allowing them to pay up the rent arrears on an instalment basis," he urged.
Other issues the zonal chairpersons raised include road relaying, stray animal menaces, UGD work, constructing boundary wall around Sellur tanks before starting road work in Kulamangalam to prevent mud from tank banks to spill onto the road, and regulating the collection of wet wastes from halls in zone 5. They also said water lines are laid close to manholes in six wards in zone 2, which is fraught with risk as labourers might get trapped in the manhole while working if the pipeline breaks.