The field visits undertaken daily by the new Vellore Mayor Sujatha Anandakumar keep her busy since her election over a fortnight ago. She visits one neighbourhood after the other, inquiring about the facilities available to residents.
She has found two common problems highlighted by most of the residents during her visits. They are roads damaged by the ongoing Smart Cities project and clogging of channels taking rainwater to the Palar. She is determined to resolve these problems in the next few months, taking advantage of the summer to relay the damaged roads and clean the channels.
“Indiscriminate dumping of garbage, especially plastic waste, into the channels has blocked the free flow of rainwater to the river. In other words, the rainwater inundate residential areas,” Sujatha, a mother of two, told The Hindu.
Huge concrete channels run across the town, connecting several hillocks and lakes with the seasonal Palar. For many decades, rainwater running off the hillocks were let into the river to prevent inundation of residential areas, especially those in the Old Town.
However, the city’s unplanned growth over the years and encroachments on these channels and waterbodies have resulted in the rainwater inundating the residential areas. The problem is severe around the common market because many traders dump garbage in the channels. “We will desilt the channels before fencing certain areas, as in Chennai, where more dumping is reported. CCTV cameras will be installed,” says the Mayor.
Ms. Sujatha, 38, spent most of her life at Konavattam, situated along the channel. She went to the government school in the neighbourhood before doing master of education and law. She joined the DMK in 2004 after much persuasion by her husband K. Anandkumar, who has been in the party since 1991. The couple ran a cable television network in the neighbourhood for more than two decades. She was involved in the self-help groups and residents’ welfare associations for many years.
In 2011, she became the secretary of the DMK women’s wing in Vellore. Subsequently, she contested in the urban local bodies elections from ward 31, but lost by 50 votes. A decade later, she bagged 3,083 votes in the same ward, almost 50.47% of the votes polled, winning by 1,366 votes.
Another major issue is the damage to roads in the execution of the ₹1,000-crore Smart Cities Mission being implemented since 2018. At present, of the total of 655 km of roads to be relaid under the project, being piloted in Zone-2 (Sathuvachari), only around 200 km of roads have been relaid. Most of the stretches remain pot-holed. The Corporation has executed underground sewerage system simultenously.
Vellore remains a key city on the State’s tourism map. The flow of tourists declined because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As tourism is likely to revive with the lifting of curbs, mass cleaning work has started at tourist spots. The Mayor will also spearhead a tree plantation drive as the city remains one of the hottest places in the State every summer. The civic body will tie up with the Forest Department to promote tree plantation among residents.
The Vellore municipality was upgraded as a Corporation in 2008, with P. Karthikeyan, the present MLA, becoming the Mayor that year. After delimitation, the Corporation, with 60 wards, went to the polls in 2011. The then AIADMK candidate, P. Karthiyayini, now a BJP office-bearer, became the Mayor in direct elections. Currently, the Corporation has four zones with a population of around eight lakh. Of the 60 wards, the DMK won 44 this time.
