GCC urged to utilise Nirbhaya fund for women safety in Chennai

CHENNAI: Only 8.6 percent of Nirbhaya fund has been utilised by the previous government for the safety of women in public places, said K Dhanasekaran, head of accounts committee during the council meeting held at Ripon Building on Thursday.

In addition, the parks maintained by the city Corporation through contractors revealed that the allotted person maintain the parks in a poor State due to inadequate funding. The civic body authorities should ensure that the city parks are maintained and monitored regularly.

"In 2019, the Nirbhaya fund of Rs 282.28 crore was allocated and this includes 60 percent from the Union government and 40 per cent from the Tamil Nadu government. Of this, Rs 137 crore has been provided to Chennai corporation to ensure protection of women in public places. But only Rs 11 crore was spent, which is 8.6 per cent. It has been revealed that the incompetent AIDMK government was very negligent in the safety of women by not utilising the funds and implementing programmes," said Dhanasekaran.

He further stated that the GCC commissioner should review the funds of this scheme and ensure it has been utilised for the protection of women in the city.

Meanwhile, the accounts committee head noted that Chennai city has 786 parks, of which 142 parks are maintained by the city Corporation, 57 parks are privately owned tenders. The zonal offices gave tenders to maintain the remaining 584 parks. Many of the parks were constructed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister when he was Chennai Mayor, now it has been revealed in the audit that these parks have been systematically degraded during the previous government.

"It has been noted that during the tender process, large scale irregularities have occurred. Also, the authorities did not calculate the tender amount properly, the contractors claim that they cannot maintain the parks due to inadequate funds.

Similarly, the authorities do not maintain documents regarding the park maintenance," alleged Dhanasekaran.

During the council meeting, the ward member requested the corporation commissioner to black list such errant contractors for thier failure to maintain Corporation parks. The zonal officers should be directed to properly calculate and fix the tender amount and inspect the maintenance of the parks on a daily basis.

"In the last council meeting, the mayor had informed that the corporation would give Rs 1 lakh as compensation to the family of the deceased member of the council. Following, the deputy Mayor requested to increase it to Rs 5 lakh, now on behalf of the councilors we request to increase the compensation amount to Rs 10 lakh," Dhanasekaran urged the council.