MADURAI: In yet another council meeting held at the corporation office in Madurai, the discussions surrounding water scarcity, especially in zones 4 and 5 in the city, loomed large. Besides this, at least 50% of the seats in the room were empty towards the end of the council meeting as many councillors walked out in between the meetings, despite the mayor's multiple warnings against it.
Inaugurating the event, Mayor V Indirani V Ponvasanth delivered her speech, in which she added that all development works worth more than Rs 2,000 crores have been carried out in the city, while some issues may have surfaced in connection with it. In the question and answer session that followed, councillors associated with the DMK and its allied parties raised slogans against NEET and requested the mayor to pass a resolution against NEET.
Madurai South MLA M Boominathan thanked Chief Minister MK Stalin for taking action towards inaugurating the TM Soundar Rajan statue in Madurai, following which he requested the city corporation council to take action towards renaming the cement road where the statue is situated as TMS road. In response to the query, Mayor Indirani stated that an agenda to rename the road as TMS road has been approved by the council. Boominathan later requested action towards addressing sewage and road damage issues prevailing in his constituency.
Zonal chairpersons raised concerns regarding the prevailing water scarcity issues and alleged that some areas are provided water only once in 7-8 days. Stating that some areas have issues over biased valve operators, they requested the commissioner to appoint valve operators selected by councillors for their areas.
Responding to the water scarcity issues, Corporation Commissioner Praveen Kumar stated that such issues have become prevalent as the water sources in the locality have dried up. As a temporary solution, an additional 0.5 MLD of water is being taken from the TWAD to be distributed to the Thirunagar area. The corporation is also taking action towards the completion of Periyar drinking water lines as it could solve the issue.
Apart from drinking water issues, another common concern raised by the councillors was regarding UGD blockage issues across the city. Pointing out that the monsoon season is fast approaching, the councillors sought a permanent solution to the issues that they raised. In response, the mayor stated that actions are being taken to prevent the issues. A super suction machine worth Rs 3.5 crores will be bought for the Madurai corporation to address the issues.Other common issues, including stray dog menace, vehicle repair and encroachments, were also raised during the council meeting.
Meanwhile, Ward 24 councillor J. Manikam raised a question regarding the corporation's purchase of 2.25 lakh national flags in the previous year. "Out of this, only 1.29 lakh flags were distributed to the people. The remaining 81,184 flags, which are worth around Rs 17.42 lakh, have been kept in storage since last year. These flags could have been distributed before this year's Independence Day. But it was not done, causing a loss of Rs 17 lakh to the corporation," he said and requested an explanation for the issue. Stating that the official concerned was on leave, the commissioner said action would be taken to solve the issue.