COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) and Sulur Town Panchayat were selected for the Chief Minister's Award for good governance.
Chief Minister MK Stalin handed over the award along with a cash reward of Rs 50 lakh to CCMC Mayor R Ranganayaki and Commissioner M Sivaguru Prabakaran during the Independence Day celebration on Thursday.
Similarly, Chairperson of Sulur Town Panchayat Devi Mannavan and the Executive Officer PS Saravanan received the award with a Rs 20 lakh reward.
Speaking to TNIE for being chosen as the best corporation award in the state, CCMC Commissioner Sivaguru Prabakaran said, "The state government's award is motivating us to continue to provide better administration in the upcoming years. It happened with the support of the councillors and staff of the corporation. Various parameters such as solid waste management, roads, water supply, street lights and park maintenance, tax collection etc were considered for the award."
"We have been working to ensure better solid waste management through door-door collection every day. The solid waste management by the corporation was given good credit in the analysis for the award. In the revenue collection, we achieved 93% out of the total tax demand in 2023-24. The tax collection was high by more than 10 % compared to the previous financial year. We laid 1,700 roads in 2023-24. A fund for laying over 1,200 roads was allotted for the present financial year. Of this, 70% of works have been completed," Prabakaran said.
Speaking on the streetlight maintenance, he said, "CCMC has been maintaining 1 lakh street lights. As many as 7,091 new street lights were set up in the year."
He also said the reward of Rs 50 lakh will be utilised as capital for the corporation. Meanwhile, PS Saravanan, the Executive Officer of Sulur Town Panchayat, said, "Solid waste management, water supply, roads and tax collection were considered for the selection of the award. As our town panchayat performed well on these elements, the state government chose us for the award.
Our town panchayat has 32,000 population and generates around 10 ton of waste per day. We are strictly ensuring proper solid waste management. The award encourages us furthermore in doing well."