|
Following the announcement of the Minister for Local Administration M.K. Stalin that Chennai's suburbs would have separate Corporations, one for the Ambattur-Tiruvottriyur area and the other for Tambaram and its environs, the administration has gone ahead and made its plans for the Tambaram Corporation available to the public.
But during the process of consultation, the lack of clarity on what the new South Chennai Corporation would do and what benefits people could expect came through most strongly. Most importantly, it was not clear as to what the Government had in mind by suddenly bestowing Corporation status on an area that is a conglomeration of a municipality and several panchayats.
The authorities, it would seem, have obviously not thought through the whole process. Government itself evidently expects to merely cash in on the goodwill that such an announcement would bring.
Those who attended the public consultation, and as was to be expected there were more politicians than the general public, had several questions to ask, none of which was satisfactorily answered.
1. Where would the Corporation be headquartered? This by itself became the subject of acrimony, as leaders of rival parties wanted the HQ to be in their own strongholds.
2. What would be the area under the South Chennai Corporation? Here again some leaders took the opportunity to lobby for their localities being declared as municipalities outside the purview of the new Corporation.
3. Some residents said that they would prefer their areas remaining municipalities as they felt that a large Corporation would not look into local problems.
4. The fundamental question that remained unanswered was the real benefit that would accrue to residents if their area became a Corporation. There was no clear policy statement on how the quality of life would improve.
5. The balancing out of benefits came in for protests from those who represented areas that were better off than others. They feared that their funds would be diverted to other localities that were lacking basic amenities.
Significantly, the CMDA is yet to come out with a statement on how this new Corporation will affect the Chennai Master Plan which is under implementation.
Will the new Corporation follow the Plan when it comes to development? Have the areas under the proposed Corporation been covered by the Plan? There are no answers to these questions.
How the new body will interact with the oldest Corporation in India, the Chennai Corporation, and what will be the degree of co-operation between the two, especially in a scenario where the two come to be headed by political parties of opposing ideologies, also needs to be looked at.
Public consultation is still ongoing and is expected to continue for a month. Plans for the Ambattur-Tiruvottriyur Corporation are also expected to be unveiled shortly and public opinion invited there too.
The public has, however, expressed its unhappiness at the lack of prior publicity for these consultations. Only a few managed to participate and, perhaps, the CMDA felt that it would be better that way.
|
