Numbering Of Houses - CCC Demands Inquiry
Door and water connection numbers of a resident in Vadavalli mentioned on a piece of metal. The Coimbatore Consumer Cause has called for an inquiry into a Kolkatta-based company issuing door number plates to residents in town panchayats. The consumer body’s secretary K. Kathirmathiyon has cited instances of such number plates being issued in the Vadavalli Town Panchayat. In a letter to the Director of Town Panchayats, the consumer activist explained that an organization by name ‘United Commercial Industry of India’ seemed to have sent a letter to the Government, requesting that it be permitted to the number houses.In this connection some of the town panchayats had informed the people that each house should pay Rs.10 and get the door numbers painted. Since the town panchayat staff had informed that it was compulsory many people were forced pay Rs.10 a house. After getting the amount the person demanded the copy of the Property Tax receipt. Then he marked the door number of the house in a 3" x 6" metal sheet and gave it to the house owners. The door and water connection numbers were written with a marker pen. Mr. Kathirmathiyon questioned the rationale behind the exercise. Nothing other than the people losing their money had happened because of this, he said. When people were quite aware of their door numbers, where was the need to have this written on a metal plate, he asked.
The consumer body said that it found after inquiring with the local bodies that since the name of the organisation was ‘United Commercial Industry of India’ some of the officials had misconstrued it to be a Central Government agency.If any exercise for fresh numbering of houses had been taken up by the Government, it would have certainly informed the people through proper orders and guidelines, he said. As for the exercise undertaken by the little known organisation here, Mr. Kathirmathiyon said there was no instruction on what should be done with the number plate; whether to display it in front of the house or just keep it inside.
“We are surprised to note that this has taken place only in town panchayats, and that too in not all of them,” he said. Calling this a wasteful exercise and expenditure for the people, Mr. Kathirmathiyon suspected that this had happened without the knowledge of the Government. “Hence, we seek an inquiry into the matter for appropriate action,” he said in the letter.
