TAMBARAM: Pallavaram councillors on Tuesday demanded a probe by the State Human Rights Commission into the arrest and subsequent alleged assault on two municipality staff by the CB-CID earlier this month.

Cutting across party affiliations, the councillors said that Settu and Damodaran were assaulted by the CB-CID personnel in connection with an eviction they had carried out on the orders of the municipality last year.

The councillors said they were kept in the dark about the action taken against the two staff.

The authorities had not taken adequate steps to protect the two, they charged.

The councillors said that S. Janardhanan and Rajappa, councillors of Ward numbers 8 and 9 , had complained last year to both the Pallavaram municipality commissioner and the chairman regarding the alleged encroachment on a water body (Survey No. 432/10) by an individual.

After inspecting the spot, officials directed the removal of the encroachments.

An earthmoving equipment, manned by Settu and Damodaran, removed the same. According to the authorities, the person concerned denied the charge of encroachment and moved the High Court, which directed the CB-CID to investigate the matter.

Recently, one year after the removal of the encroachment, sleuths from the CB-CID picked up Settu and Damodaran and detained them, the councillors said. During the course of the investigation, the two were assaulted by the policemen, they alleged.

Pointing out that the two men were simply executing the orders of the Municipality, the councillors blamed the authorities for not doing anything to protect the staff, the councillors said.

They said the municipality should urge the State Human Rights Commission to look into the alleged excesses committed by the CB-CID. Chairman P. Dhan Singh said the municipality would soon decide on the future course of action to be taken in this issue.

Stress on recovery

Among other issues debated in the meeting, the councillors urged the municipality to take steps to recover property tax arrears, especially from commercial establishments.

CPI (M) councillor S. Narasimhan said that a private housing firm had bought land from a defunct leather company on Dargah Road and had planned a massive housing project.

As the leather tannery owed a few crores to the local body, it was now the duty of the housing company to pay the arrears. He wanted to know if the local body had collected dues from the company before permitting the housing project.

The entire procedure should be made transparent and the exact dues made known to the councillors and the public, he said.

BJP Councillor V. Santhanam suggested that the municipality prepare an exhaustive list of vacant plots owned by individuals and companies and take adequate steps to recover the property dues.

Not only would this make things easy for administration, but also add to revenue generation, he said.

Absenteeism and shortage of staff

Mr. Dhan Singh said the municipality had proposed to privatise collection and disposal of garbage in 18 wards on a trial basis.

Citing high rate of absenteeism and shortage of staff, he said people were forced to "walk over heaps of garbage."

Mr. Narasimhan, however, said absenteeism and lack of manpower could not be cited as reasons for taking up privatisation.

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