Urban News

The Hindu      23.09.2010

Resolution to expand municipal limits approved

Staff Reporter

TIRUPATTUR: The Tirupattur municipality will take forward its long-pending demand for expanding its boundary limits to the District Collector. A resolution passed by the municipal council for the expansion will be submitted to the Collector soon. In fact, panchayats of the areas proposed to be annexed have also given the nod for the merger.

At its urgent council meeting convened on Tuesday, the council approved the resolution to merge a few surrounding panchayats with the municipality. All 33 councillors of the local body gave the nod for passing the resolution, said Chairman of the municipality Chokkammal Thulasinathan.

“Presently, the municipality covers a total area of 4.6 square kilometres. We have proposed to merge the nearby areas such as Vengalapuram, Pachal, Supallipattu and Aadhiyur with the municipality. Then, the total limit will be approximately 10 to 11 square kilometres,” she said.

In fact, the municipality has already obtained the resolutions passed by the panchayats of these areas approving the move to merge with the Tirupattur Municipality. These resolutions will be sent to the District Collector soon, she noted.

The resolution was passed amid ruckus as the councillors protested against the Commissioner for not implementing development works for the last nine months

The extension of the boundary limits will also help to augment revenue generation for the municipality, she said.

The demand to expand the municipal limits have been represented to the district administration on a number of occasions earlier too, she pointed out. “The Tirupattur Municipality was created in 1886. It is important to expand the municipal limits to increase revenue. These areas such as Aadhiyur and Vengalapuram have become developed areas and have a number of shops and marriage halls too,” she added.

On the agitation between the council members and municipal authorities, she said that development works were not being implemented in the municipality for the last nine months.

“For instance, the Vaniyambadi municipality has obtained Rs. six crore from the government under the Special Roads Scheme to relay damaged roads. But Tirupattur municipality, which is larger than Vaniyambadi municipality, has sent a proposal for only Rs. 2.75 crore under the scheme. More funds would mean that we can improve the road facilities for the public here,” she explained.

In addition, the authorities were also delaying several development works such as constructing shopping complexes to boost revenue generation. Proper removal of garbage and immediate repair works such as in water supply problems were other works not being carried out well, she said.

The Hindu  22.09.2010

Corporation officials detect fleecing at parking lot in city

Special Correspondent

Officials notice some of those who parked their vehicles being issued unauthorised tokens

Irregularity: A token issued at the Cross-Cut Road parking lot does not mention the vehicle exit time. -

COIMBATORE: A surprise check by the Coimbatore Corporation officials late on Tuesday evening led to the detection of fleecing at its four-wheeler parking lot on Cross-Cut Road.

The check followed complaints of fleecing from the public.

The Corporation had fixed Rs.10 as the fee for three hours of parking. It is Rs.20 up to six hours.

But, persons employed by the lessee had collected Rs.20 even for 10 minutes of parking. On coming to know of the complaints around 8 p.m., Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra sent two teams in separate cars to the parking lot.

The Corporation had made it clear that tokens from a hand-held billing machine must be issued to a car on arrival. The tokens must have the time of the vehicle's entry. Only then could the duration of parking be calculated when the car was being taken out of the lot.

The first car was issued a token as per this system and charged only Rs.10.

The next team came in later in another car and watched the situation. It noticed unauthorised tokens for Rs.20 being issued to other vehicles as soon as they entered and got parked.

As per the system approved by the civic body, a token for Rs.10 should be issued on entry if the vehicle would be parked only for three hours. A sum of Rs.20 could be collected only if this time limit was exceeded.

But, the token was not being issued on entry. The staff played by the rule with some vehicles and issued the unauthorised tokens for Rs.20 to the others.

The public complained that the staff at the parking lot asked the car owners to complete their shopping and pay when they returned to take the vehicles.

But, when they returned, these people were asked to pay Rs.20 even if the vehicle had been parked only for one or two hours.

When asked why excess fee was collected, the staff replied. “We do not know when you left the car here”.

If someone insisted on paying on entry itself, the unauthorised token for Rs.20 was issued. A person who parked his car at the lot on September 10 was given a token for Rs.20. He said the token itself was issued only when a strong demand was made.

Another person said he had to pay Rs.20 for parking his car for just 10 minutes at the lot on Raja Street.

Mr.Mishra said after the surprise check on Tuesday that boards with phone numbers of officials were displayed prominently at the lot, so that people could lodge complaints about fleecing.

Option

“But, no one is using this option. People must be bold enough to lodge complaints with us. We will take action,” the Commissioner said.

“We have imposed a huge fine of Rs.1 lakh because this was the first offence of the lessee. If he does it again, his contract will be cancelled. The lessee will be blacklisted so that he cannot participate in any tenders of the Corporation,” the Commissioner said.