A walkout by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members and councillors’ concern over mosquito menace in the wake of dengue deaths in the suburbs marked the Corporation council meeting here on Wednesday.
When the meeting began, the DMK members wanted the Mayor V.V. Rajan Chellappa to pass a resolution thanking the Union Minister, M.K. Alagiri for having allotted Rs. 2 crore to the city under the MP’s Local Area Development Fund. However, the Mayor rejected the demand saying it was a routine measure by any MLA or MP to provide funds for development works.
When the DMK members insisted, the Mayor said he would have happily passed a resolution had the Minister brought any chemical industry or an automobile unit to the district or else announced his resignation protesting over Karnataka not releasing water from the Cauvery to Tamil Nadu.
Chaos reigned for sometime with members of both the DMK and the ruling party shouting at each other. Later, the Mayor asked the DMK members to leave the hall for disturbing the meeting.
The AIADMK zonal chairperson, K. Rajapandian, demanded that fogging should be done daily to contain the dengue-causing mosquitoes. He complained that the chemical used for fogging was not effective enough to kill the mosquitoes. “We find the mosquitoes swarming within 30 minutes of fogging. It seems we are being taken for a ride,” he said.
When the other zonal chairperson, P. Salaimuthu raised, the Corporation Commissioner, R. Nanthagopal, said that the chemical was approved by the Health Department. He said the Health officials have advised the corporation to increase the dosage of chemicals.
Mr. Salaimuthu complained that fogging was not done in several places, and the sanitary inspectors were not accompanying the fogging staff. The Commissioner said that the ward-wise schedule of fogging has been made public through the media.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) member, M. Chellam, said that the panic over dengue was still among the city residents. She wanted to restore the old practice of taking up weekly mass cleaning to remove garbage from every ward. The Commissioner said that the sanitary inspectors, who take care of five wards, have been advised to take up mass cleaning in one ward on each working day.
Many members raised the issue of “demoting” several technical assistants/engineers following the Rs. 1.5 crore-scam which was reported in the north zone recently. They wanted the administration to allow technical assistants/engineers to hold additional charge as Assistant Engineers and Assistant Executive Engineers for smooth functioning of the local body.
“When additional charge was given to officials in other departments, why should it not be extended to the engineering department too,” Mr. Salaimuthu asked.
The Mayor said that the Commissioner would take a decision on the issue.
The issues of underground drainage overflowing in the Masi Streets and mixing of sewage with drinking water were also discussed.
The council passed a resolution on the Corporation’s proposal sent to the Government seeking Rs. 24.06 crore for re-laying 59.517 km of roads that were damaged during laying underground drainage scheme, laying the second drinking water pipeline project and in the floods.
