Opposition wants Thoothukudi Corporation to reconsider announcement to collect water tax

Thoothukudi Mayor proposes water tap connection deposits, addresses illegal connections, park maintenance, and road infrastructure in council meeting.

Even as Mayor N.P. Jagan on Monday announced that Thoothukudi Corporation proposed to collect deposit for water tap connections, the Opposition wanted the administration to reconsider the move.

The council meeting was presided over by the Mayor and Corporation Commissioner L Madhubalan and other officials were present.

The Mayor said the Corporation had 1,52,382 houses under its jurisdiction, and 90,736 of them had drinking water tap connections. With many new multi-storeyed residential apartments coming up in the city limits, the Corporation had to provide infrastructure facilities for which the administration had to collect deposit to meet the ever-growing expenditure. Hence, it had been proposed to collect ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 as deposits depending on the number of dwellings on each premises.

Those who had not obtained permission for water tap connections could give applications for regularisation, he added.

The Councillors pointed out that there were plenty of illegal water tap connections and the Corporation had neglected to take action. “Either disconnect those connections or regularise them with a one time fee,” they said.

Also, there were many public parks that remained in the hands of anti-socials. The Corporation, instead of revamping them, invested huge sums on establishing new parks in the city.

Intervening, the Mayor said the Pink park, exclusively for women, which was opened recently by Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi, was getting overwhelming response. The new parks had been opened with the latest technology.