New Corporations for Chennai's suburbia

Under the new proposal to set up two more corporations, Chennai South corporation, with an area of 263.13 sq km, will include Tambaram, Alandur, Ullagaram-Puzhuthivakkam, Pallavaram, Pammal and Anakaputhur municipalities. It will also include 13 town panchayats and 52 village panchayats, comprising a population of 10.19 lakh. With a 337.08 sq km area and a 13.51 lakh population, the Chennai North corporation will comprise Ambattur, Avadi, Madhavaram, Manali, Poonamallee, Tiruverkadu, Maduravoyal, Valasaravakkam, Kathivakkam and Tiruvottiyur municipalities, four town panchayats and 55 villages in Puzhal, Poonamallee and Villivakkam unions. All the existing panchayats and local bodies will have to be dissolved, and each area would be administered as a ward. Having considered contiguity and compactness, population, urbanization levels and income of local bodies as the broader criteria, the committee has omitted far-flung villages from the proposed local bodies, the sources said. The committee wants the present limits of Chennai Corporation, with a population of 43.44 lakh, to be retained. Though regarded the fourth biggest metropolis, Chennai with a 176 sq km area is technically smaller than Greater Bangalore (800 sq km) and Hyderabad (650) as these two cities have expanded their boundaries by merging adjoining areas with themselves. The dissolution of smaller local bodies is likely to have political ramifications and possible judicial intervention. However, some bureaucrats feel there is nothing wrong in dissolving them. “There is no meaning having the councils at village and town panchayat levels without enough resources. Civic services are in a very bad condition outside Chennai. Smaller local bodies neither have funds nor adequate manpower, experience or skills. Buying an acre of land for solid waste management will be impossible for them,” said an official. R S Bharathi, senior DMK leader and municipal chairman of Alandur that shares a border with Chennai Corporation, pointed out that his municipality, for instance, could not take up any flyover or bridge work that require huge investments.Concerned by haphazard planning despite the exponential growth of population in the suburbs over the past decade, CM M Karunanidhi had appointed a committee in February to study the modalities for civic governance in and around Chennai. Headed by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority vice-chairman, the committee had the commissioner of revenue administration and municipal administration and water supply department secretary as its members. The committee was mandated to work out the modalities of carving out two more corporations from the Chennai Metropolitan Area of 1,189 sq km including the city of Chennai, 16 municipalities, 20 town panchayats and 214 village panchayats in 10 panchayat unions in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts.