: Notwithstanding the fact that the clock at the Coimbatore Corporation Council hall was ticking past the 8 p.m. mark on Thursday, councillors spared no efforts in questioning officials on subjects tabled for consideration.
On the second subject concerning maintenance of 16 of the 29 paid public toilets in the city, the councillors wanted to know why was the Corporation putting the horse before the cart by attempting to contract out maintenance of toilets that were closed or dilapidated.
The Corporation had placed before the Council the subject for maintenance of 16 paid toilets saying that the Council could consider giving those on maintenance contract for three years and revising the use fee from ₹1 to ₹ 5 for urination and from ₹3 to ₹10 for defecation.
And, in awarding the maintenance contract the Corporation had said it would call for expression of interest, study the bidding firms’ technical bid and financial bid and then award the contract to eligible firms.
Drawing the Corporation’s attention to the way the toilets in schools were maintained, Central Zone Chairperson Meena Logu said the contracts tasked with maintaining the school toilets had engaged non-Tamil migrant labourers for the cleaning job.
Communicating with those labourers and getting the task completed proved to be very difficult as she had experienced in the school in her ward in Rathinapuri.
East Zone Chairperson Lakshmi Ilanjselvi said the Council could consider reducing the user fee for urination to Rs. 3, as increasing the fee to ₹5 would only lead to urination in the open. The Corporation should keeping in mind the city’s health and hygiene standards while fixing the user fee, she reminded.
DMK Councillor K. Selvaraj (Ward 72) said the civic body should first repair damaged toilets and unlock the closed ones before tender. He suggested that the Council reduce the contract period to one year and not three years as it would be easy to change contractors who did a poor job.
Three year was too long a period and punishing the contractors for poor job within the three years would prove to be difficult.
Ms. Logu also sought from officials explanation for saying that the Corporation awarding contract would be based on technical bids and wanted to what constituted the technical qualification.
After Deputy Commissioner M. Sharmila explained that technical bid would include details like the contractors’ financial health, GST compliance, etc., the Council passed the resolution.
