The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), on July 5, organised the 3rd edition of ‘Makkalai Thedi Mayor’ at the GCC office on LB Road, Adyar, for the residents of Zone 13. The event was earlier organised in Royapuram (Zone 5) and Thiru-vi-ka Nagar (Zone 6). The initiative was part of the Corporation’s efforts to reach out to the public, listen to the grievances and expedite the solution, as promised earlier this year.
In Zone 13, the Mayor received 303 petitions, with issues ranging from school facilities, stormwater drains, road repairs, park improvements, sewage and water, electricity, other civic issues and birth & death certificates.
Eleven of the complaints pertaining to birth certificates and change of name in property papers were resolved on the spot. GCC informed that all the other issues would be resolved by the respective departments at the earliest. Most of the issues were pertaining to stormwater drains and sewage and metro water. The Mayor also informed that roads would be re-laid at places where the SWD work had been completed.
At the event, the Mayor also distributed:
- Cheque of Rs.1 lakh each to 10 recipients from the Chief Minister’s Accident Relief Fund;
- Nutrition kit to 20 pregnant women;
- Motorised sewing machine to 5 underprivileged women;
- Cheque of Rs.2000 to 21 students from 6 schools, who had topped the board exams;
- Monetary assistance to eight elderly widows;
- Monetary relief for the differently abled.
Also present at the event were: Thamizhachi Thangapandian – MP (Chennai South); Dha.Velu – Mylapore MLA; Mahesh Kumar – Deputy Mayor; J.Radhakrishnan, IAS – GCC Commissioner; Shankar Lal Kumawat, IAS – Additional Commissioner (Health); Dr.G.S.Sameeran, IAS – Joint Commissioner (Works); Saranya Ari, IAS – Deputy Commissioner (Health) (Revenue and Finance (in-charge)); M.P.Amith – Regional Deputy Commissioner; R.Durairaj – Zone 13 Chairman; S.Rajendiran – Chief Engineer; Dr.M.Jagadeesan – City Health Officer, Zonal Officer (Zone 13) Saravanamoorthy and Councillors of the wards.
Chaos reigns at venue
Inexperienced staff, unorganised queue system and confusion while registering complaints were just some of the issues faced by the crowd at the venue.
“It took 35 minutes for filing my complaint,” said Bhaskar, a petitioner at the venue and he elaborated, “The staff needed more experience in handling whatever software they used to register the complaint. I was then informed that each of my complaints had to be filed as separate petitions in separate letters. That’s ridiculous! Finally they were able to file my complaints together. For complaints that didn’t have any list of categories, it went in some random category.”
Though petitioners were given a token number at the entrance of the venue, it was not followed in the queue to meet the mayor. By mid-afternoon, the petitioners ran out of patience and chaos ensued. A lady petitioner also fainted at the venue and was administered medical aid there.
A scuffle also occurred with media persons, when nonagenarian Kamakshi Subramaniyam, a petitioner from Besant Nagar, was being interviewed by the media, thus interrupting the interview.
“The only assuring aspect was that the Commissioner and the Mayor verbally listened to our complaints and immediately asked the concerned officers to look into it. The Commissioner strictly informed the CMWSSB officer on one of my complaints, ‘Please ensure that the sewage issue is resolved within a day. It shouldn’t be that issues remain unresolved even after approaching us’,” said Bhaskar.
Zone 13 looks forward to regular Area Sabhas for resolution of local issues and such initiatives with the Mayor for larger issues.
