Vellore Corporation to have a fixed number of workers to be laid off during monsoons: Mayor

Vellore Mayor Sujatha Anandakumar chairing a general council meeting at the Vellore Corporation headquarters on Wednesday.

The Vellore Corporation will have a fixed number of sanitation workers to dismantle storm water drains during monsoons to prevent flooding in the city especially in low-lying areas, said Mayor Sujatha Anandakumar in a council meeting, held here on Wednesday.

Mayor Sujatha, who was the chairman of this meeting, was responding to councilor K. Mamtha Kumar from Ward 28 for not having enough workers to clean the drains especially during the rainy season. He said the Association will make a plan to have a set number of conservation workers to clean the canals, at least in the affected areas during heavy rains. “The company will retain at least 50 sanitation workers to empty storm drains alone during the northeast monsoon. We will ask a private agency to hire more workers to achieve this goal,” he said.

Elaborating, Ms. Sujatha said that public officials have been instructed not to issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the cutting of roads by other agencies including telecom, internet and the Tamil Nadu Drainage and Sewage Board (TWAD) during the rainy season because there are many of them. the lines were not renewed due to ongoing underground water extraction work. Therefore, continuing to excavate the damaged areas will increase the difficulties faced by road users, he said.

Most of the councilors highlighted official indifference when dealing with citizens’ complaints about basic things such as poor water supply, borewell repairs, incomplete underground sewerage and bad roads. They said that the council meeting must be held every month as it is against the existing practice of holding it once every three or four months because this plan will allow them to express public complaints regularly.

“The Kangeyanallur Main Road near VIT in Katpadi has been excavated for many months for work on the bridge but the civic center has never been re-positioned. “Every day, many students, office workers and farmers are injured while using the mining area,” said P. Ramesh, Ward 10 councillor.

Federal Commissioner P. Janaki Raveendran said that the Corporation had given the State Highways a one kilometer area for renovation work including installing blacktopping last month. He also added that the State Roads will be reminded to speed up its ongoing work at this facility.

Ward members also highlighted irregular water supply, especially through new overhead tanks (OHTs), in important areas like Katpadi, Sathuvachari, Gandhi Nagar and Old Town. The inadequate supply of water is mainly due to the delay of TWAD in completing its inspection of new tanks and pipelines for leaks. New tanks and pipes were installed to provide uninterrupted water supply to the areas at the end of the community, said Ms. Raveendran.

The three-hour meeting passed a resolution for more than 50 jobs, to be taken up across its four locations, including 60 wards, at a cost of £90 crore.