The Hindu 21.09.2010
Special camps provide quick service to people: Commissioner
Special Correspondent
| ‘We received 600 applications/petitions in first round' |
PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN 
INSTANT SOLUTION:The Coimbatore Corporation says nearly 90 per cent of the Property Tax assessment and drinking water connection applications are disposed of at the special camps being held at its zone offices.
COIMBATORE: The zone level special services and grievances redress camps being conducted by the Coimbatore Corporation benefit the public in the form of quick response to their applications or petitions, the civic body said on Friday.
“The most important benefit is that it helps in eliminating middle men who hang around the offices of the Corporation and look to fleece applicants or petitioners,” Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra said after Mayor R. Venkatachalam and he inaugurated the second round of camps for East and West zones.
“The public response to the camps is by itself an indicator of how beneficial these are to them. We received 600 applications/petitions in the first round,” the Commissioner said. “We have been able to dispose of 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the applications or petitions on the spot. We have taken only two or three days time from the date of the camp if the solution involved the drawing up of estimates,” he explained.
Applications for new tax assessment, water connections, building licence, birth and death certificates were disposed of across the counter. “In one of the camps today (Friday), 10 orders were issued by 10.30 a.m.,” the Commissioner said. The time taken for these services in the normal course was 15 days.
So far, the Corporation has disposed of on the spot 435 Property Tax and tax-related name transfer applications, out of the total 818 received at the camps.Out of the total 268 applications for new water connections and name transfer in water charge account, 233 were disposed of at the camps. And, 101 out of the 106 applications for birth and death certificates were also cleared.
As for the other applications, the delay was owing to the need for verifying some details.Petitions on malfunctioning of streetlights were responded to immediately. Teams fanned out to the problem areas immediately to repair the faulty lights, the Commissioner said.
It was not possible to provide on-the-spot solution with regard to petitions demanding big works such as roads or drainage. In these cases, the Corporation had to prepare estimates and this took at least a couple of days, he said.But, the process was initiated at the camp itself. And, within two days, the final plan of action was also drawn up.If the decision taken at a camp was not implemented, it would be raised at the next one. Constant follow-up was being done to ensure that all petitions were acted upon, the Commissioner said.
