Coimbatore: The emergency meeting of the Coimbatore City East District Executive Committee was held at the Coimbatore District Council Office in Cross Cut road, Gandhipuram at 9.30 AM, today. The meeting was chaired by the Coimbatore City East District Incharge, MLA N. Karthik.
Coimbatore: The emergency meeting of the Coimbatore City East District Executive Committee was held at the Coimbatore District Council Office in Cross Cut road, Gandhipuram at 9.30 AM, today. The meeting was chaired by the Coimbatore City East District Incharge, MLA N. Karthik.
The meeting was attended by the Council Asset Protection Committee Vice President Pongalur N. Palanisamy, In-charge Committee Members P. Nachimuthu, Lawyer K.M. Dhandapani, Dr. Gokul, R.K. Kumaresan, M.K. Umamaheshwari, M.R. Selvaraj, M. Selvaraj, Kottai Abbas, P. Mariselvan Ex. MC, A. Kannan, N. Kamal Manoharan, P. Anandan, General Council members M. Magudapathi, C.T.T. Rajarajeshwari, Party Council In-charge S.M. Sami, R.M. Sethuraman, Market M. Manoharan, P.Pasupathi, M. Siva, Sheik Abdullah, V. Balasubramaniam, M. Nagaraj, R. Cheralathan, V.I. Badrudeen, and Women's Wing Meena Jayakumar.
District Organizers of various wings and party executives also took part in the meeting. The vote of thanks was rendered by the Gandhipuram area Council In-charge R.M. Sethuraman.
The East District Incharge, MLA N. Karthik spoke to the press after the meeting. Various resolutions were passed in the meeting.
Obituary Resolutions were passed to pay tribute to the former President of India, Bharat Ratna Pranab Mukherjee who passed away on August 31, 2020, former Minister A. Rahman Khan who passed away on August 20, 2020, popular businessman and the Kanyakumari Constituency Congress MP H. Vasantha Kumar who passed away on August 28, 2020, doctors, members of the police department, health workers and all other frontline workers who lost their lives and other cadres of the DMK who lost their lives.
Various resolutions were also passed in the meeting.
Resolution 1: For the past few days, the number of cases of COVID-19 has been declared in the range of 500 to 600. This only indicates the rise in the spread of COVID-19. On August 28, Minister S.P. Velumani had shared on social media that all traders and other businesses must be insisted to test their employees once in 15 days. Has the government announced any kind of financial assistance for these tests to be conducted? How can the businesses that have been facing a downtrend due to the pandemic situation afford to spend thousands of rupees on testing their employees once in 15 days?
The CM has been stating various things about the pandemic right from the beginning. The TN government has not been releasing details of the disease spread and the prevention measures being undertaken in a transparent manner. This was condemned by the DMK Party President previously.
Suggestions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were shared on May 29 and July 6 on behalf of the DMK. Further it has been insisted that the District Administration must take up a more transparent approach and publish COVID-19 research reports. However, the administration has not responded so far.
The District Administration under the Minister for Municipal Administration S.P.Velumani has been functioning in an indifferent manner. They do not have an understanding of how to handle the pandemic right from the beginning. The way the pandemic has been handled has exposed the government.
Currently, treatment is being offered at the Coimbatore GH, ESI hospital and CODISSIA. If the spread of the virus increases unexpectedly and the rush of patients to hospitals increases, are there enough beds and proper precautionary measures taken? Do we have enough ventilators and medicines?
Sufficient testing is not being carried out in Coimbatore, hence enough testing must be carried out. Free medical camps must be conducted in all areas. Testing labs must also be increased to provide results in a timely manner. Providing COVID test results online must also be considered.
The spraying of disinfectants that was undertaken by the Corporation initially has fizzled out now. These pandemic times are being used to carry out irregularities right from the sourcing of bleaching powder to PPEs and at all the isolation centers. Complete administrative failure is being witnessed due to the Administrative confusion created by Minister S.P. Velumani. The government basically wants the people to take care of themselves and this is condemnable.
Resolution 2: None of the nearly 4,000 resolutions that have been executed by the Special Officer carried out under the Smart City projects, water schemes,road works, developmental activities and contract work, since 2017 July until today, for the last three years have been updated on the Corporation website. Even RTIs have not fetched results. This lack of transparency can lead to scams.
If the resolutions passed by the Corporation Commissioner are updated on the website then the people can be aware of the details and any fraud will come to light. Hence without further delay all the resolutions from July 2017 must be updated on the Corporation website and the Corporation administration must take action to complete this.
Resolution 3: The provision of the drinking water contract to the French Corporation Suez with the approval of Minister S.P. Velumani for 26 years, at a cost of Rs.3,150 crores has elicited a lot of criticism. The DMK condemned this immediately. Even the public of Coimbatore have registered their disagreement and displeasure. All allied parties have expressed their disapproval. Many protests were held against this scheme. However, the Corporation has continued to ignore this and is executing the project.
In Spite of it being two years since the project was signed, the laying of drinking water pipelines has not been done. Work is done at snail's pace and many roads have been dug out and damaged due to this. Existing pipelines have been broken during this process causing a disruption in the water supply. To get it fixed, the public have to go behind the Corporation officials for months. Lots of water is also wasted due to pipeline breakage and damage and they are not repaired immediately. The SUEZ corporation has also not been undertaking proper distribution of drinking water and repairing broken pipelines.
Due to these shortcomings of the SUEZ employees, drinking water supply has been lagging causing problems for the public. The tax money of the people has been wasted in vain and no use or improvement has been witnessed due to this project. Government projects must benefit the people and not hinder them. Hence the contract with SUEZ corporation must be cancelled immediately.
Resolution 4: Drinking water supply within the Corporation areas must be provided at least once in four days as drinking water supply is erratic and multiple complaints to the Corporation Commissioner and the deputy Commissioner and the hundreds of petitions along with the public have not helped and water supply has not been corrected.
Resolution 5: The NGR Bridge on Noyyal River, on the Singanallur to Vellalore road is dilapidated and the people travelling on the bridge are scared. Further the bridge also submerges during heavy rains.
Hence the height and width of this bridge must be increased, the road must be repaired, so the public can travel on it without fear. No action was taken regarding this even after complaints to the Highways department Divisional Engineer. The bridge must therefore be made into one with pillars that do not obstruct the flow of water to the Noyyal and broader.
Resolution 6: The Periyakulam lake is being renovated at a cost of Rs,39.74 crores under the Smart City projects but there is no water treatment plant here. There is a lot of stagnant drainage water in the lake currently. This also causes a foul odour. Not even 30% of the renovation of Valan Kulam that was initiated at a cost of Rs.23.83 crores is complete. Smart city projects of nearly Rs.1,000 crores are being undertaken without any supervision and this is being condemned by the DMK.
Resolution 7: Underground drainage work was inaugurated during the rule of Kalaignar at a cost of Rs.377 crores. Hoever during the nine years of AIADMK rule many of the works have not been completed and are left pending.
The works are sub-standard and are not supervised by any official and take place at snail's pace. Huge potholes are formed due to the lack of concrete, causing many accidents.
Further it has been many years since the construction began in the Singanallur area. However, the home pipes have not been connected to the main line in many places. These open drainages used by the people cause foul odour and give rise to a host of diseases and health conditions.
Roads have also been damaged due to this and cause a lot of difficulties for motorists and pedestrians. During the rains the roads become muddy and stagnate with water. They also cause a lot of accidents. Many protests to complete the drainage works and to rebuild the roads have gone in vain.
Hence the Corporation must expedite the underground drainage work that has been pending for the past nine years.