Puducherry Ministers N.G. Pannirselvam and T. Thiagarajan were at the Coimbatore Corporation on Monday morning, ahead of the Council meeting, to learn about solid waste management programme.
Mayor S.M. Velusamy said that the Puducherry Government representatives had come to the city after the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa awarded the ‘Best Corporation’ award to the Coimbatore Corporation.
One of the criteria for selection was performance in solid waste management.
The Puducherry Ministers and officials had visited various local bodies to study solid waste management programmes. At the Corporation main office, the civic body officials showcased their work through slideshows.
Impressed with the work done and also based on their independent feedback, the visitors were keen to adopt the Coimbatore model.
Their aim was to make Puducherry as clean as Coimbatore. One of the many things that they said need to be done to achieve the aim was to improve infrastructure, so as to make it on a par with the city.
Mr. Velusamy said that solid waste management was just one the success stories of the Corporation.
At the Council meeting, he directed officials to speed up repair of faulty street lights, check if waste cleaning lorries (septic tank cleaning) complied with norms by having safety gear for labourers, asked organisations involved in performing animal birth control operations to submit daily status reports, sought report on number of teachers appointed on contract with PTA funds and streamline street light maintenance.
Schools
The Corporation Council then passed resolutions on increasing wages for PTA teachers in higher secondary and high schools in Corporation, appointing of unskilled permanent labourers as drivers, permitting a residents’ welfare association to maintain parks, permit Rotary Club to install Automated Electrical Defibrillators at Gandhipuram, Ukkadam and Singanallur bus stands, approve compassionate ground appointments and engage contract labourers to clean Wards 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
The Council also approved of efforts to appoint a retired staff each from the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board and the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation to oversee street light maintenance and water supply, improve infrastructure in the city, increase rent at a few markets and shopping complexes and handover land to the police so as to prevent shifting of the Saibaba Colony police station.
