The Chief Executive Officer of the Coimbatore Smart City Limited (CSCL), R. Suganya, tendered her resignation on Monday.
The CSCL is the company (special purpose vehicle) that implements the Central Government's Smart City projects in the city.
Sources familiar with the development said the 28-year-old daughter of former AIADMK MLA K.P. Raju had stated in Tamil that she wished to resign for personal reasons and also because her appointment had generated controversy. She submitted the resignation letter to the to the Managing Director and Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan at the civic body's main office in Town Hall.
The CSCL had appointed her in the first week of August and Ms. Suganya assumed office on August 11.
Her appointment had generated controversy as the city's residents and activists viewed it as a gross violation of rules and perceived her to be inexperienced enough to head the CSCL that would implement projects worth crores of rupees.
At the time of appointment, Ms. Suganya had only around three years of experience in two private companies with almost nil exposure to urban governance.
Political parties staged protests and a few also met the CSCL officials in person to register their protest. Online campaigns through various social media platforms also went viral.
Defending her appointment, the Corporation issued a release clarifying that Ms. Suganya was the best among the candidates it could identify and not many candidates responded to the advertisements.
But The Hindu reported that candidates with qualifications far better than Ms. Suganya's had applied and that the interview panel comprising the Corporation Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Corporation's City Engineer reportedly conducted the interview in a perfunctory manner.
Later, the Corporation issued a detailed release explaining the number of responses it got in response to the first advertisement - when it had fixed the eligibility criteria at 15 years experience and five of that in urban sector, and the response it got the second time to the advertisement it issued after lowering the eligibility criteria to three years.
The Corporation had also defended the lowering in eligibility criteria to the availability of fewer candidates.
The sources said that the Managing Director, CSCL, had accepted the resignation and would continue to hold the additional post of CEO, as he had held prior to Ms. Suganya's appointment.
Ms. Suganya did not respond to text/calls from The Hindu .
