Coimbatore Smart City CEO quits

Activists, parties had flayed her appointment saying she was inexperienced

Coimbatore Tamil Nadu 28/08/2017.
After her appointment as CEO of Coimbatore Smart City Limited (CSCL) raised controversies about eligibility, R. Suganya, daughter of AIADMK's former MLA K.P. Raju submitted her resignation on Monday. 
Photo:HANDOUT_E_MAIL

The controversial Chief Executive Officer of Coimbatore Smart City Ltd (CSCL), R. Suganya, tendered her resignation on Monday.

CSCL is the company (a special purpose vehicle) that implements the Central Government’s Smart City projects in the city.

Sources familiar with the development said the 28-year-old daughter of former AIADMK MLA K.P. Raju has, in her resignation letter, submitted to the Managing Director and Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan at the civic body’s main office in Town Hall, cited personal reasons and the controversy generated over her appointment to the top post as factors behind her decision to quit.

Coimbatore Smart City Ltd had appointed her in the first week of August and Ms. Suganya assumed office on August 11.

Her appointment had generated controversy as the city’s residents and activists viewed it as a violation of rules and perceived her to be inexperienced to head a company like Coimbatore Smart City Ltd. At the time of appointment, she had only around three years of experience in private companies.

Defending her appointment, the Corporation issued a release clarifying that Ms. Suganya was the best among the candidates it could identify and not many candidates responded to the advertisements.

But The Hindu had reported that candidates with far better qualifications than Ms. Suganya’s had applied and that the interview panel comprising the Corporation Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Corporation’s City Engineer reportedly conducted the interview in a perfunctory manner.

Later, the Corporation issued a detailed release explaining the number of responses it got in response to the first advertisement - when it had fixed the eligibility criteria at 15 years of experience and five of that in urban sector, and the response it got the second time to the advertisement it issued after lowering the eligibility criteria to three years.

The Corporation had also defended the lowering in eligibility criteria to the availability of fewer candidates.

Sources said that the Managing Director of Coimbatore Smart City Ltd had accepted the resignation and would continue to hold the additional post of CEO, something he had done prior to Ms. Suganya’s appointment.

Ms. Suganya did not respond to text messages/calls from The Hindu .