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Poor road conditions, sanitation issues dominate Salem council meeting

August 20, 2015 12:00 am | Updated March 29, 2016 04:15 pm IST - SALEM:

DMK councillors wearing protective face mask staging walkout from the council meeting in Salem on Wednesday. —PHOTO: E. LAKSHMI NARAYANAN

Poor condition of roads in the city damaged due to laying of pipelines and underground cables was the core issue raised by councillors during the council meeting held here on Wednesday.

Stating that poor sanitation leads to spread of diseases, eight DMK councillors attended the meeting wearing protective face mask.

The meeting began with Mayor S. Soundappan reading out a message to condole the death of former President APJ Abdul Kalam and the members observing a minute’s silence.

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Deputy Mayor M. Natesan said that corporation had failed to carryout fogging operations, due to which cases of dengue were being reported in the city. To this, City Health Officer R. Selvakumar said that only two cases of dengue were reported in the year.

He added that the children who were now hospitalised suffer from other ailments. “It is common to see four out of 100 persons suffer from fever during rainy season. There is no outbreak of dengue’, Mr. Selvakumar said.

Corporation Commissioner K.R. Selvaraj said that animal birth control (ABC) programme for stray dogs would be carried out effectively as the Animal Welfare Board has roped in an NGO for the project.

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He also explained the various steps taken for implementing schemes under Smart City, Swatch Bharat and National Urban Livelihood Mission.

DMK leader of the house M. Bhuvaneswari questioned why the Corporation had purchased stickers for solid waste management project at a very high cost when the same was available at low price. She also wanted to know the reason behind the frequent fire accidents at Chettichavadi dump yard.

DMK councillor V. Deivalingam said that shelters for passengers were being constructed at Ponammapet in violation of rules. When he said that only proposals were announced in the council meeting and no works were carried out, the house witnessed noisy scenes and DMK councillors staged a walkout. All the resolutions were passed, including a proposal seeking funds for re-laying roads at a cost of Rs. 100 crore.

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