CHENNAI: With the local body polls due on the third week of October, officials of the local administration department and the Chennai Corporation are busy providing finishing touches to the proposal to expand the city’s limits. The officials are burning the midnight oil to ensure that the redrawing of boundaries for the city Corporation limits does not hamper the election process.The expansion of the city limits has been on the pipeline for some time and the civic officials have even worked out the model: The Chennai Corporation, which now has 10 zones, will have five more after integrating the adjacent municipalities and panchayats. Likewise, the number of divisions would also go up to 200 from the present 155.A division-wise electoral roll is also getting ready to be used for the local body polls. The formal announcement on the city limit expansion is expected at the Assembly today when the demand for the local administration department is placed before the House.The Corporation Council too will discuss the issues pertaining to expansion of the city at its next meeting scheduled for August 29, Mayor M Subramanian told City Express.Ripon Building sources said that the notification for the local body elections could be expected in the third week of September, as the state government would probably announce several welfare schemes on former Chief Minister CN Annadurai’s birth anniversary (Sep 15).Once the election notification is issued, the code of conduct will come into effect. As such, the official announcement regarding local body elections is expected after September 15. There should be 31 days interval between the announcement and elections. According to sources, the local body elections will possibly be held in the third week of October. Greater Chennai will comprise 42 local bodies that existed independently around Chennai city.Meanwhile, the Mayor said that the Corporation was unlikely to allow parking of vehicles in its school playgrounds in the evenings as proposed by the Chennai traffic police to decongest traffic in the city.The traffic police have not yet officially communicated the plan to the Corporation in this regard. “Even if the Corporation is asked to give its consent for parking vehicles in corporation school playgrounds, I will reject the traffic police’s appeal,” said the Mayor. “There have already been incidents of damaging and stealing water taps, iron grills and other properties from the schools. Moreover, according to a Supreme Court order, playgrounds cannot be used for parking purpose,” he asserted.Earlier in the day, Subramanian inspected the renovation work of the Ripon Buildings. The renovation is being done at a cost of `7.7 crore under the JNNURM scheme. The ground floor of the Ripon Buildings will house a museum for public view. Work is likely to be completed within 18 months. The new annexe has been constructed at a cost of `18.15 crore and will have a meeting hall with a seating capacity of 500.
Comments
0 comment