Special Meeting For Infrastructure Development
The Coimbatore Corporation plans to hold on November 24 a special meeting of the Council on the infrastructure development scheme it is to implement at Rs.3,186 crore under the Central Government’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Official sources in the civic body said on Tuesday that councillors would be briefed on the status of more than 10 projects for water supply, flyovers, multi-tier parking lots, underground sewers and improvements to roads and transportation. A special meeting on the mission schemes is a long pending demand of the councillors, especially the Opposition parties such as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India. This is the first time a full session on the mission is to be held in the Council, ever since the schemes were drafted in 2005. Meetings to explain the schemes to councillors had been held at a hotel, a private auditorium and even in a hall at the Corporation’s main office. But, the Opposition had insisted that such meetings be held in the Council.
At last month’s Council meeting and even in some earlier ones, the AIADMK had demanded a White Paper on the schemes by alleging that there had been no progress at all and that the projects remained only on paper. The Communist parties had complained that the Corporation’s focus was too much on the mission schemes and this held up routine works. The parties had clarified that they wanted major schemes for the development of the city. But, they insisted that the Corporation be transparent in its approach to implementing these. The parties had openly said the lack of transparency was evident in the hesitation on the part of the Corporation to hold a special meeting in the Council.
