MADURAI: For the third consecutive council meeting, Mayor of Madurai corporation V Indrani Ponvasanth emphasised the importance of councillors' attendance in the three-hour-long council meeting held once a month, after several councillors left the hall after signing the attendance register, during the meeting held on Friday.
At the council meeting, several issues, including vehicle repair and UGD blockage issues remained a major civic issue raised by councillors during the meeting.
Beginning the meeting with a speech, the mayor expressed condemnation for the Manipur violence, stating that the union government and the state government concerned have failed to resolve. The mayor further stated that many civic works, including 450 km of road works are being carried out in the Madurai city corporation.
Ahead of the question-and-answer session, ward 64 AIADMK councillor Solai Raja spoke on the accident involving an athlete in Madurai on Saturday, in which the athlete sustained severe injuries to his leg. He requested the city council to take action towards providing a compensation and job opportunity for the athlete. The mayor assured to take action on it.
As the Q/A session continued, zonal chairpersons elaborated on issues, including lack of funds in zone, vehicle malfunction, the need for appointing teachers at schools, and water distribution issues, to which the mayor assured to take action towards resolving the issues. Zone 4 chairperson Mukesh Sharma urged for a separate AE in the zone for handling UGD issues, stating that blockage issues are common in the area and that it can be addressed easier with a separate AE. Accepting it corporation commissioner Praveen Kumar assured to depute one engineer for UGD issues.
Later when Solai Raja demanded the council to publish a white paper to know about the general fund expenditure. Responding to this, the mayor sarcastically asked whether the AIADMK party filed white paper when they were the ruling party.
Many councillors expressed their appreciation for the recent announcement of monthly honorarium for councillors. Mayor specially mentioned ward 26 AIADMK councillor Sokkaiyi who has been asking for monthly remuneration since the first council meeting itself.
As the meeting proceeded, the mayor condemned the councillors who continue to walk out of the hall. "They cannot even sit for three hours in the council meeting to discuss the civic issues. It is important as it is the duty of councillors to discuss the issues people face," she added.
Responding to the mayor, ward 54 councillor reasoned that they continue to walk out as councillors are not provided any tea during the meeting, and said it must be served to the councillors from the next meeting.
Other issues, including a special team to fix vehicle malfunctions, a spare shop to prevent waiting periods, and water distribution issues and rain preparedness-related issues, were raised by the councillors.