AIADMK minister and members roaming around city

Former Minister and AIADMK legislator S.M. Velusamy (fourth from right) and party members at a street corner meeting in the city on Saturday.Led by Palladam MLA and party urban district secretary S.M. Velusamy, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) held street corner meetings in the city on Saturday to condemn the increase in drinking water charges made by the Coimbatore Corporation and the lack of development in the city.Covering all the 72 wards in the Corporation limits, the party activists held these meetings from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in an attempt at portraying the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Congress as anti-people because of the increase in the charges.

The Corporation had proposed a 100 per cent increase in the charges.While the AIADMK and the Communist Party of India, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Bharatiya Janata Party staged a walkout from the Council, the DMK and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) wanted the increase to be pegged at a maximum of 50 per cent. The new charges will take effect on January 1, next year.While the charges were increased through a resolution in the Council on July 23, the AIADMK’s demonstration to condemn it came a month later.Co-ordinator of the meetings and party councillor in the Corporation P. Rajkumar said these were also held to oppose the civic body’s move to levy a fee for door-to-door collection of garbage when it implemented its Rs.96-crore Integrated Solid Waste Management Programme.

The Corporation had collected about Rs. 50 crore by way of fee for the regularisation of unapproved layouts. But, no development work had taken off yet. The meetings condemned the Corporation for the continuing plight of the residents of these layouts.“The main demand now from the residents is storm water drains. They want these provided to prevent stagnation of rainwater,” the councillor said.The implementation of the Rs.113-crore Pilloor Phase II drinking water scheme, under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, should be handed over to the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board. When the Phase I scheme, the biggest in Asia, was implemented by the TWAD Board, why was the Corporation not giving the Phase II project also to it, the party asked.

The AIADMK also accused the Corporation of not being transparent in drawing up infrastructure development projects under the mission. The allocation of funds to the four zones for carrying out development works had been drastically reduced from Rs. 2.5 crore to Rs. 1 crore.These funds were being diverted for the Corporation to meet its 30 per cent share of the cost of the mission schemes.“We suspect that even the regularisation fee also is being used for this purpose and not to provide amenities in the layouts,” he said.The party indicated that it would continue to highlight these issues to point out the Corporation’s faulty approach to development in the city, especially in implementing the mission schemes.

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