The erratic maintenance and operation of streetlights within the Corporation limits reverberated in the Corporation council meeting held on Thursday as the councillors cutting across party lines trained their anger on the private agency identified for this exercise.
Raising this issue in the meeting, Congress member T.N. Umapathi Sivan said lack of maintenance and improper operation of streetlights across the city at night had left people in the lurch even as the Corporation was unnecessarily giving a few crores of rupees every year to Akash Engineering Associates Private Limited, Chennai, the private firm handpicked for the work.
Supporting Mr. Umapathi’s assertion, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam councillor Paramasivan said the contract awarded to this firm should be cancelled as it failed to fulfil its commitments.
When Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member Kamaludeen said it was the AIADMK administration in the Corporation that had decided in favour of extending the contract period of the firm from the existing five years to 10 years, it triggered commotion for a couple of minutes.
DMK member Francis and a few more women councillors too expressed their dissatisfaction with the firm’s performance.
“This firm, which was blacklisted by the then Mayor Vijila Sathyananth for poor performance, should not be given this contract anymore,” Mr Kamaludeen said.
Endorsing the members’ views, Mayor E. Bhuvaneshwari said she would soon convene a meeting of all councillors in which representatives of the private company would also participate to present their case.
“If the members are still unsatisfied, the administration will consider cancelling the contract awarded to this firm,” Ms Bhuvaneshwari said.
Mr Francis said the Corporation administration should give due attention to relaying of the badly damaged roads.
AIADMK members Angammal and Baby, and DMK councillor Kumar wanted the officials to use only effective chemical agents to control mosquitoes causing dengue. “The chemical agents being used presently are not effective at all and hence there is no desired result,” Mr Kumar said.
AIADMK member ‘Kurichi’ Sekar alias Natarajan said the sagging sanitary operations in Melapalayam zone should be enlivened by involving more personnel.
