The Hindu       18.01.2011

Efforts under way to avoid overlapping of wards

“We are trying our best to avoid such overlap. Such
cases can be reported to the Corporation for rectification,” said
Corporation Commissioner D. Karthikeyen.

Some of the councillors who claimed that a few of the
new wards were overlapping stressed the need for avoiding overlapping of
wards with more than one Assembly constituency.

The overlap of wards is being reported from
constituencies such as T. Nagar, Thousand Lights, Ambattur, Maduravoyal,
Perambur and Thiru.Vi.Ka.Nagar. “If a ward shares area with two or more
Assembly constituencies, it will be difficult to access funds for
development works. So many councillors have asked the officials to
properly screen the delimited wards and find out such overlap and
rectify it,” said B. Devaki, a councillor. The Assembly recently adopted
a Bill, increasing the number of wards of the Chennai Municipal
Corporation from 155 to 200. The Bill replaced an ordinance promulgated
on December 20.

The government, in its order issued in December 2009,
mentioned the names of the 42 local bodies that would be part of the
expanded Corporation.

However, the delimitation of the wards is yet to be
approved by the Corporation Council or the Assembly. The Council
resolution to this effect is likely to be passed only after the concerns
of many of the councillors are addressed.

The resolution could not be passed at the recent council
meeting as many of the councillors wanted precise details about the
boundaries of the wards, the areas that would be demarcated during the
expansion and the population of each of the wards.

“The details of the streets were not given. Only
boundaries were given. So there were concerns,” said Mangal Raj, a
councillor. “Every ward should be delimited in such a way that they have
all basic facilities such as market, places of worship, schools and
hospitals. Some of the wards lack some of these facilities,” he added.

He, however, admitted that the expansion would improve
infrastructure development. M. Jayaraman, ward 10 chairman, said that
the expansion of the city limits would reduce the number of
representatives and reverse the process of decentralisation of powers.

“We oppose the expansion of the Chennai Corporation.
Creation of more Corporations in Tambaram, Tiruvottiyur and Ambattur
will be an option,” he added.

Most local bodies lack basic amenities such as sewer
network, water supply, roads and stormwater drains. Access to funds for
the expanded Chennai Corporation would be better, said Saidai P.Ravi,
leader of opposition, Chennai Corporation.