Minister asks DMK councillors to focus on resolving civic issues

A few women councillors told not to allow family members to interfere in local administration

Minister for Municipal Administration K.N. Nehru on Thursday advised a few women councillors in the Greater Chennai Corporation not to allow their family members to interfere in local administration. He also advised councillors to visit their wards to resolve civic issues and strengthen the administration.

The ruling DMK on Thursday summoned a batch of councillors to Anna Arivalayam following an appraisal done in the past few months about DMK councillors in the Corporation. The party has 153 members in the Chennai Corporation Council with 200 councillors.

Some of the women councillors in the first batch of those summoned on Thursday were said to be inexperienced and were reportedly ignorant about major civic issues in the residential areas, according to a report.

Each councillor was permitted to talk one-on-one with Mr. Nehru in the presence of Health Minister Ma. Subramanian and HR and CE Minister P.K. Sekarbabu. Reports about the performance of each councillors were read out by Mr. Nehru, who advised them to improve their performance in resolving civic issues faced by the residents in their ward.

According to sources, some of the councillors, including women who reportedly committed major mistakes in local administration, are likely to be summoned later.

Councillors are keeping their fingers crossed as many of them were not aware of the preparation of a report about their performance in the last few months. The DMK has planned to advise some of the councillors to prevent any activities that would bring disrepute to the party ahead of the upcoming Parliamentary elections.