The Hindu : Pallavaram councillors at the receiving end

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 04, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Pallavaram councillors at the receiving end

By K. Manikandan

CHENNAI FEB. 3. The Pallavaram Municipality took the problem by the horns, but is finding it difficult to come out with a solution. Councillors and members of residents' association, who canvassed for the residents to pay deposit amount for the proposed underground sewer project, today find themselves at the receiving end.

A month after the State Government set a deadline for the local body to collect at least ten per cent of the project cost for an administrative sanction, the Municipality finds that the deposit collected from the residents is nowhere near the targetted amount.

Following a resolution passed in the Municipality for execution of the project, a GO (No.138) was issued on February 30, 2001, stating that advance deposit amount from at least 50 per cent of the beneficiaries should be collected. It was planned to implement Rs 55.45-crore project in 32 wards in the first phase. The Municipality targetted a sum of Rs four crore for collection.

Realising that a little over Rs 2 crores had been collected, residents associations and the Municipality appealed to the Government for extension of time following which the local body was given time till December 31 last year. Another GO (No.234) made it clear that according administrative sanction depended solely on the collection of deposit amount.

A little more than a month after the deadline, there seems to be very little progress. The Municipality at present has collected just Rs 2.35 crores from assesses. "Those who have remitted their deposit amount have started questioning us about the fate of the project", a councillor remarked. He pointed out that solely on the assurances given by them and by the Municipality in its plan statement, did the residents come forward to remit the sum.

Residents also pointed out to the ambiguity in the Government stance. "While it sets a deadline for collection of the amount, it does not clearly say what the fate of the project will be if the targetted funds are not mobilised", points out V. Santhanam, president of the Federation of Civic and Welfare Associations of Pallavaram Municipality, and asks, "are we to assume that the project would hang fire until the last pie is collected?"

The councillors and residents also took exception to the argument in the plan statement handed out to the residents that if they failed to pay the deposit amount now, they might have to pay a higher amount later. Further, they had no other option but to take up the connection as later, the concept of septic tanks would become obsolete, before being subsequently banned by the Government. "The Government or the Municipality had no right to coerce an individual to get a connection even before the project is through", a councillor belonging to the opposition said.

Some others were of the opinion that the Municipality had lost its steam to intensify its deposit mobilisation drive. "What explanation does the Municipality offer for the deadline set by the project implementing agencies", Mr. Santhanam asked, a view supported by the CPI (M) councillor, S. Narasimhan.

Mr. Narasimhan was also of the opinion that the interest from the amount deposited by the residents could be utilised to pay the residents' monthly dues.

The Municipal authorities said they were waiting for the final report from the project consultants and were hopeful of receiving an administrative sanction. Once they were through, tenders would be called for, they said and added this process might take another two months. Residents' do not seem to be convinced as they feel that the Municipality should come forward with a clear-cut statement on when the work would actually commence.

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