Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner will take charge as Special Officer of the Coimbatore Corporation on October 25. The Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department of the State Government issued a notification on October 24 re-designating the Commissioner as Commissioner and Special Officer.
Sources said that the order meant that even as the Commissioner continued to discharge is duties, he would be the Special Officer, who would enjoy the powers of the Council. This would mean that the Special Officer could sanction projects worth up to Rs. 1 crore and also expedite proposals to be sent to Government for approval.
The re-designation was necessitated as the term of the current Council ended on October 24 as the Madras High Court had stayed the conduct of local body election on a petition filed by the DMK.
Subsequently the State Election Commission revoked the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct.
That meant that the Council continued to exist for a brief while - for about 10 days. This is for the first time that the State Government had appointed a Special Officer for the Corporation after 1996.
