Approval Issued Within 6 Hours
Mayor R. Venkatachalam (second left) handing over an approved building plan to residents at the ‘Makkalai Thedi’ programme in Coimbatore on Wednesday. Corporation Commissioner V.K. Shanmugham (left) is in the picture. The Coimbatore Corporation resumed on Wednesday its one-stop-shop services camp “Makkalai Thedi” (Going to the people) for a cluster of wards after a gap of more than two months. The ‘mini Corporation on the move’ issues orders for the release of water connections, transfer of names in property tax or water charge account, assesses buildings for tax and also issues birth and death certificates. The staff members of the Corporation occupy a marriage hall or a school near five to six wards that are taken up for the programme. Applications are received from the people from 7 a.m. and the orders issued by 1 p.m. Normally, this process takes anywhere from a month to a year. The Corporation says the programme helps in eliminating touts and the consequent excess fee collection for various services. When it was launched on January 10, the Corporation wanted to conduct the camps for all the 72 wards by March 31, the close of the 2007-08 financial year. But only four camps, covering 22 wards were conducted.
The fifth one held on Wednesday made an on-the-spot disposal of 313 petitions, with 114 relating to fresh property tax assessment and 75 requesting for name change in tax accounts. The other petitions related to new drinking water connections or name change and also building plan approval. A television installed at the venue displayed the names of the applicants and the status of their petitions. The services they sought and whether these had been sanctioned appeared against their names. Mayor R. Venkatachalam, Corporation Commissioner V.K. Shanmugham and Deputy Mayor N. Karthik gave away orders for water connections and approved building plans to the applicants at the end of the camp.
The first camp on January 10 for five wards disposed of 647 petitions, with 235 of these related to the assessment of buildings for property tax. The issuing of orders to release 39 water connections showed that day that even this service, which can take months through the normal system, can be provided swiftly. The second camp on January 25 for eight wards disposed of 1,017 applications. These related to streetlight maintenance, solid waste management, underground drainage connection, property tax assessment and name change, plan approval, building licence, issuing of survey extract and birth and death certificates and name change for drinking water connections.
The third camp for three wards on February 23 disposed of 789 applications. More than 400 applications requested for property tax assessment and name change on records and 187 others related to the release of new drinking water connections or name change to existing ones. The fourth camp on February 29 disposed of 934 petitions from residents in six wards. The Corporation said that it would continue to hold these camps in order to cover all the wards in the city.
