The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Mayor, Opposition trade charges over streetlights

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 09, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Mayor, Opposition trade charges over streetlights

Special Correspondent

Solution will come soon, says Malaravan

COIMBATORE: The Opposition in the Coimbatore Corporation Council is upset over the Mayor, T. Malaravan's reported remarks that the fast by its members on Monday was for political mileage and that it did not have the support of the people.

This has set off a debate between the two. The Mayor, however, reiterated the charge against the Opposition on Wednesday and asked why the parties should resort to agitation when a joint approach for resolution through talks was enough. He even said a solution to the streetlights issue would come soon as concerted efforts for it was on.

The members had observed fast to demand steps by the Corporation to begin maintenance of streetlights, which had been held up due to the Government's rejection of the contractors identified by the civic body.

Citing discrepancies in inviting of bids separately for all the four zones in the city, the Commissioner of Municipal Administration had halted the process of handing over maintenance to the two private operators, who got contracts for two zones each.

Lamenting poor maintenance of the 30,030 streetlights since September last year, the Opposition members observed a fast on Monday urging the Corporation to find a solution to the issue.

Expresses dismay

On Tuesday, the Opposition sent a letter to the Mayor expressing dismay over Mr. Malaravan's reported remarks that the fast was to attract the attention of the State leadership of the parties and that it did not have the support of the people.

The Deputy Mayor, K. Raghupathy, Leader of the Opposition, K.P. Jagannathan, `Colony' R. Venkatachalam (Congress), C. Padmanabhan (Communist Party of India-Marxist), R. Devaraj (Communist Party of India) and M. Krishnaswamy (Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) expressed in the letter their resentment over the manner in which the Opposition's struggle to bring benefit to the people had been derided.

They wondered how the Mayor could belittle the Opposition when he himself had adjourned two Council meetings declaring that these would be held only after the streetlights issue had been resolved.

They also argued that when the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members had raised the issue of poor maintenance in the Council, how could the Opposition's efforts alone be ridiculed.

Yet to see letter

Claiming that he was yet to see the letter, the Mayor on Wednesday blamed the streetlight problem on the Opposition. "The Opposition members had insisted that the Corporation should carry out maintenance even after I pointed out clearly to them that we had only 19 field staff. I told them that as the field staff had to assess water consumption charges, they would not be able to carry out streetlight maintenance. We lost time over this row."

Mr. Malaravan said the Opposition was wrong in faulting the Corporation over the present deadlock when the higher authorities in Chennai had halted the process.

"The councillors know that I spoke to the Minister (Local Administration) about the streetlight issue. The Opposition knows the truth and there is no point in blaming the Corporation. Yet, I wonder why they should observe fast."

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