The Coimbatore Corporation's proposal to carry out a delimitation exercise and bring down the number of wards from 72 to 60 has come under criticism from councillors and others.
The Corporation's proposal suggests that it is going by the 2011 population, which is wrong, argues K. Purushothaman, Councillor, Ward 61. “If the civic body was considering taking population it should have taken the latest, or it should have gone by the voters list used for the just-concluded Assembly elections.”
Mr. Purushothaman said that as soon as the Corporation area expanded, people in annexed areas would pay more professional tax, vacant land tax, property tax, water charges, additional charges like those to clear debris, increased licence fee, etc. but would not get facilities commensurate with their status.
Real estate
Only the real estate value in the areas to be annexed would go up, said M.S. Velmurugan, Ward 57. If population was the criterion, what is the cut-off, he wondered and pointed out that a ward with 9,000-and-odd votes and another one with 30,000-and-odd votes had been allowed. He was referring to Ward 64, which has a population of 9,810 and Ward 72, which has a population of 32,360.
P. Rajkumar, Councillor, Ward 71, said the mistakes committed in delimitation carried out in 1996 were being continued.
He said the AIADMK would seek changes and would spell out its stand at the Monday's Council meeting.
Discrepancies
M. Krishnasamy, former councillor and MDMK leader, also pointed out to the discrepancies in rearranging wards based on population and suggested that if wards were formed based on a population between 10,000 and 15,000 it could pave way for uniform distribution of people across wards.
