The Madurai Corporation Councillors were disappointed as senior officials came unprepared for the Council meeting held on Friday. Most of the top-ranking officials of the civic body could not reply to queries raised by the members on various issues such as drinking water problem, drainage, bore wells and schools.
For most of the questions raised by the Councillors, their common reply was that the “work is at the tender stage”, implying that tenders will be called for.
In a few instances, Mayor V.V.Rajan Chellappa and Commissioner R.Nanthagopal felt embarrassed as the officials fumbled for a reply. Several senior officials did not even know how to switch on the hand mike, and when they took a long time for that, the Mayor had to tell them how to use a mike. When the Councillors said in chorus that they were not getting satisfactory answers, the Commissioner intervened and directed the officials concerned to visit the places and take immediate action on the complaints.
“If you have answers ready, then tell them here or go to the spots mentioned by the members and complete the works,” Mr.Rajan Chellappa said.
Many Councillors have complained that Assistant Engineers (AE) could not be traced in many wards as they were not visiting their designated localities at all.
Two AIADMK Councillors — Raja S.Sreenivasan (Ward 93) and M.Kumutha (Ward 79) — said it would be difficult to face the people when the AEs did not perform their official duties.
Kamatchi Muthukumar of Ward 55 urged the Mayor and the Commissioner to ask the engineers and senior officials to visit each ward to assess the local requirements.
At one stage, the Corporation Commissioner was perturbed to know that officials had not installed an electric inverter at a Councillor’s office.
“Works in Zone-2 are not being done properly. I told you to do so but why the delay?” he asked the officials.
M.Kesavapandiammal, Councillor for Ward 1, asked the Mayor to announce a few Corporation initiatives for her area, which has no school or dispensary run by the civic body.
