Corporation will in phases in the next three years improve street lights across the city.
The Corporation Council made a decision to this effect at the council meeting on Wednesday.
The council, led by Mayor S.M. Velusamy, also decided to conduct a ward-wise grievance meeting and named it ‘Amma Scheme’ The decision to improve street lights was taken after a number of councillors spoke about weak electric poles, faulty street lights and poor maintenance. Councillor Meena Loganathan (Ward 49) was the first to raise the issue: she said that there were a number of electric poles in her ward, they could fall anytime and that the Corporation should initiate efforts to replace the poles.
A. Nandhakumar (Ward 52) said that the problem of structurally weak electric poles was not confined to one or two wards.
It was right across the city, covering almost all the ward. He asked the Mayor to ask the Corporation engineers to work with their counterparts in the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) so as to identify the weak poles and have them replaced.
In response to his request, the Mayor said that it was not a question of replacing just weak poles.
He had received information that street lights in the city were 20 years old and that many street lights needed complete replacement.
The Corporation was determined to repair and, wherever necessary, replace street lights. But it could not do so at one go. In the next three years, in a phased manner, the Corporation would replace all the street lights.
On a priority basis, it would take up those street lights that are faulty and rest on weak poles. In identifying such street lights, the councillors should help the engineers. “Prepare a list of street lights that require urgent repair,” the Mayor told the councillors.
The next decision the Mayor announced in the council was that the Corporation would conduct ward-wise grievance meeting. His announcement followed a representation from M. Rajendran (Ward 9).
Just as the State Government had introduced ‘Amma Scheme’ (Assured Maximum Service to Marginal People in All Villages) to redress the grievances of the people, the Corporation should also reach the people by conducting camps in wards. Mr. Rajendran said that it should first conduct the camps in the 40 wards that cover the added areas, for it was there that the number of residents’ grievances were high.
The residents could not pay water tax or property tax as there were a number of discrepancies in data.
A few other councillors also supported him.
In response to the councillors’ demand, the Mayor said that the Corporation would conduct the campus and the scheme would be called ‘Amma Scheme.’ And the civic body would first conduct the camps in added areas.
The council authorised the Corporation Commissioner G. Latha to work with the Coimbatore City Police officers in deciding a safe venue for housing shops that would sell Deepavali firecrackers.
The decision came after a few councillors wanted the shops to be located in VOC Park and at selected locations in all the five zones.
The council passed resolutions related to water supply, new Council Hall, increase in rent for shops, establishment of multi-storied parking lots, repair of roads where underground drainage work was undertaken, maintenance of water supply schemes among others.
