Residents miss councillors, seek solution from officers

In October 2016, special officers were appointed in lieu of the local councillors, whose term had ended. A year later, without the local body elections, the post of a ward councillor has been lying vacant. Residents of Velachery say they missed a ward councillor during the recent spells of rain earlier this month. S Kumararaja, vice president, Federation of Velachery Welfare Association, said that if there was a councillor, the residents could vent their grievances. “During the recent rain, we had noticed that work on civic problems – such as water logging, bad roads or malfunctioning streetlamps – took longer. The councillor is a link between the people and the bureaucrats. Since the councillor needs people’s votes, the elected representative was involved in people’s problems. But for the bureaucrat, votes do not matter, and civic issues are sorted out slowly,” he pointed out. 

In the absence of a ward councillor, residents of Sidco Nagar did the next best thing – approached the MLA, in this case, B Ranganathan. 

“Earlier, we used to take our problems to the councillor. Now, we approach the MLA. This summer, the complaints of water scarcity was sorted by the MLA, using the MLA’s fund. He had ensured that four borewells were dug, to meet the need of the community,” said Harirangan P, President of Sidco Nagar Residents Welfare Association.

In many places across the city, the public is still unaware of the councillor’s vacancy, pointing to a lack of connection with the elected representative. A resident of MRC Nagar, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “I do not know if the post of the local councillor has been filled or not, since the previous representative did not bother too much about the problems people faced. The residents and associations have started working directly with the officials from various government departments, to address civic issues.”

Echoing a similar sentiment, the residents of Korattur said that under the special officer, the civic problems plaguing them have been sorted out faster than before. Syed Hassan, an office bearer of Korattur Residents Welfare Association, said that their earlier councillor was non-functional, from the citizens’ perspective. 

“In the absence a councillor, we have reached out to the special officer, who has now become the de-facto interface. In fact, the special officer was more helpful than the local councillor. For example, if there is an issue of sewage leaking into a storm water drain, the Corporation officials say that it is not our department. But the special officer had gotten things stitched faster,” he said. 

How do the other authorities feel about this? Mylapore MLA, R Nataraj said that there were moments when he was at loggerheads with the former councillor. 

“But, a councillor is important and can bring about a positive change. If the councillor is good and works towards people’s welfare, it can change a ward. Despite our differences, we ensured that the right thing was done. If the councillor doesn’t take interest or engages in taking advantage of the position, people suffer. This is also an important sign for the people, who should demand more from their councillor and taking pains to select the right candidate, as ward representatives play a key role,” he concluded.