The Hindu 01.06.2010
Water scarcity issue dominates council meeting
Special Correspondent
| Officials blamed for their apathy; Mayor promises to take necessary action |
Photo: P. Goutham 
Debate:A councillor raising water scarcity issue at the Salem Corporation council meeting on Monday. —
SALEM: The issue of drinking water scarcity in the city became the hot subject for discussion in the council meeting of Salem Corporation as councillors cutting across party affiliations raised it on its floor on Monday.
These councillors and zonal chairmen did not hesitate to grab the issue for further discussion though it was mooted by the AIADMK leader K Venkatachalam. They also blamed the middle and lower rung officials for their apathy towards the public issue and also sanitation.
Mr. Venkatachalam asked the Mayor J Rekha Priyadarshini whether the Corporation had utilised the special fund of Rs. 2 crore for drilling bore wells to address the water scarcity problem in the city.
He said that to his knowledge no work had taken place in the city. Preparation of estimates took painfully long and the problem remained unsolved.
The DMK zonal chairman P. Asokan (Ammapet) charged that no official in Salem Corporation was working for the people's welfare.
Water was supplied once in nine days in Ammapet zone. Though Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugam and the then Collector had asked the Corporation officials to streamline the water supply, no serious effort till today had been initiated. Water scarcity had gripped the city, he said.
Another DMK zonal chairman P Natesan (Asthampatti) put the blame on officials saying that they had totally frayed the functioning of the civic body.
Whenever the councillors asked, the officials claimed that it was due to fund shortage.
The council should be informed about the monthly budget of Corporation and expenditure, he demanded.
The issue of water was raised by almost all councillors who took part in the debate.
Councillor Manickam said that the officials in health especially in malaria wing and engineering sections did not show interest in their work. The Mayor said that she would take necessary action in this regard.
Responding to the queries Commissioner K S Palanisamy said that the finance of the civic body was not that rosy and told the house that officials had to speed up the tax collections.
He said that he would take steps to make officials shrug off their complacency.
Tenders had been called for drilling bore-wells in the city.
