A newly-erected canopied car parking facility on the Coimbatore Corporation office premises has irked employees and activists alike, who are questioning the need for it in times of financial crisis.
Closer to the stairway that leads to the office of the Deputy Commissioner, the corporation had just completed the erection of the canopy that has two metal pillars in the front for support. The canopy in the rear is fastened to walls.
Sources said that the decision to provide the facility at ₹5 lakh to park the car of the Deputy Commissioner within a week or two of the termination of services of around 300 conservancy workers on contract as cost cutting measure has irked one and all within the establishment.
An engineer familiar with the development dismissed the cost of the canopy as ₹5 lakh. It came as a freebie from a contractor and was a temporary measure for parking the car, the engineer claimed. The sources said that at a time when the corporation is facing severe financial crunch - the outstanding officially is around ₹150 crore but insiders say it is over ₹200 crore - the civic body would have done well to avoid an expenditure that at this point in time is a luxury. Consumer activist K. Kathirmathiyon said that it was unfair on the part of the corporation to spend ₹5 lakh for car parking. The car of the officer concerned was thus far parked in the open. What if it continued to be parked for some more time, until the financial position improved. “The corporation should lead by example.”
The Deputy Commissioner, P. Gandhimathi, said it was a non-issue as far as she was concerned. It was routine administrative expenditure and the engineering department executed it because it wanted to provide a roof to a car that cost close to ₹15 lakh. It was a deliberate campaign by people with vested interested to raise the issue, she added.
A senior official said on condition of anonymity that technically the powers to sanction projects up to ₹5 lakh fell under the powers of the officer concerned and so she should have executed the same. But the timing was awfully bad.