Councillors highlighted the drinking water problem faced by the people at the municipal council meeting here on Thursday.

Sadasivam
(DMK) said that in view of the power cut at 5 a.m., motors could not be
used. Power cut should be effected only after 9 a.m. Sun Ramanathan
(DMK) said that drinking water problem remains in all the 51 wards.

The
municipality should take steps to solve drinking water problem which
might become acute in summer. To this Srinivasan, municipal engineer,
said that as Vennar would not get water during summer, only 10 million
litres could be pumped from Vennar pumping station. So, alternative
drinking water projects were considered by the municipality.

Many
councillors raised sanitation issue and said that underground drainage
block at many places led to leakage of sewage water. Savithiri Gopal,
chairperson, said that 180 sanitation workers have been recruited
through a private company. When all of them join work, these problems
will be solved.

The municipality passed a resolution
thanking Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for the efforts she had made to get
the final award of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal gazetted.

Moving
the resolution, Ms. Gopal said that the Chief Minister had fought a
legal battle to get the award gazetted. She observed fast at Chennai in
1993 on the Cauvery issue. When the Central government did not respond
to the letters written by the Chief Minister to gazette the final award,
the Chief Minister approached the Supreme Court. She finally succeeded
and on the order issued by the Supreme Court, the Central government
gazetted the award.

The municipality also passed
resolutions thanking the Chief Minister for increasing the fund for
Saraswathi Mahal Library from Rs.40 lakh to Rs.75 lakh, completing the
construction of a new bridge across the Vennar near Palli Agraharam at
Rs.5.15 crore and declaring it open, allotting Rs.11.84 crore to Tamil
University, and allotting Rs.2,144 crores worth of relief and
development measures to Cauvery delta farmers.

The
municipality appreciated the Chief Minister for informing the Central
government that she would not host the Asian Athletics as sportspersons
from Sri Lanka would take part in the event.