COIMBATORE: The council meeting of the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) council has decided to postpone the implementation of the resolutions which allowed the revision in the rules on and hike in the UGD charges and 24x7 water supply charges, citing the upcoming Assembly election.
The charges which were first introduced a few years ago are yet to be fully implemented throughout the city.
Meanwhile, the CCMC introduced a resolution suggesting a hike in the charges and listing out new rules during the previous council meeting and that was later put on hold. The same which was taken up for Friday's council meeting was once again postponed after a huge opposition from the councillors including the opposition as well as alliance party council leaders.
The civic body conducted an urgent meeting last month in which over 100 resolutions were tabled including a couple of resolutions which mentioned revising the rules and regulations for the UGD connections as well as the 24x7 water supply connections by the Suez firm.
The civic body had tried to sneak in several rules and regulations for both UGD and water supply connections. The CCMC using its powers had also made alterations in the rules which allowed the civic body to hike the user charges by 3% every single year.
The councillors, irrespective of their political parties, have unanimously opposed these rules and regulations and have also strongly condemned the annual hike in the charges. CCMC Mayor Ranganayaki, who usually follows an "all pass" method for clearing the resolutions in the council, for a change, asked all the councillors to give their opinion on the matter.
Meanwhile, CCMC Commissioner M Sivaguru Prabakaran warned that the civic body might loose out on the loan provided by the external financial agencies if the charges are not hiked. However, the councillors were firm on postponing the resolutions citing the upcoming assembly election.
Almost all the parties' councillors including DMK, Congress, CPI, CPM, MDMK, etc, expressed their opinion on postponing the implementation of the resolution.
Pointing out the election, the councillors said that passing it now would reflect in the voting. And so, instead of suspending the resolutions completely, the council members demanded that the subject be postponed for now and be taken up after the election.
After hearing out the opinions of all councillors, the resolutions were postponed by the mayor on Friday. Some of the councillors demanded the civic body revise the rules and simplify it before implementing it.