Fruitful five years in office, says Subramanian

CHENNAI: Monday’s Council meeting at the historic Ripon Building would be the current DMK-led Chennai Corporation Council’s last before the local body election in October.Barring a one-month break due to Madras High Court’s negative observation on the events while conducting local body elections in October 2006, Mayor M Subramanian, who comes from a humble background, would be completing his five-year stint as the Mayor of the oldest Municipal Corporation in the Commonwealth Nations outside the United Kingdom.“Besides a few shortcomings, we are signing off after a fruitful five years of service to Chennaiites and we are happy that we have transformed the city on several fronts in the past five years,” was Subramanian’s response when asked about his stint as the head of the city.“It was never an easy task as the crown of mayorship demands more from you and I am happy that with the blessings of the State government I have delivered what the people of the historic city wanted,” Subramanian told Express.Though he expressed happiness over improving the image of the city in the past five years, Subramanian also listed out a few of his unfinished projects. “The Council’s efforts to bring a total ban on plastic bags and posters could not materialise.... my successor has to do it to make Chennai a truly international city,” he said.When asked to name the scheme that has brought a sense of relief to him during his stint as the Mayor, Subramanian said that the appointment of burial ground assistants as permanent employees of the civic body made him to feel that he had done something very good.“Though they were doing their services for ages at the Corporation-run burial grounds, renaming them as burial ground assistants from the crudely referred ‘Vettiyans’ and giving them permanent jobs as a normal Corporation staff made my heart fill up with joy,” he said.“Besides taking concrete steps to improve the city’s infrastructure, we have also improved the quality of education by taking several measures at the civic body-run Chennai Schools. Health sector also recorded phenomenal growth during our term,” the Mayor said.