EPS hits out at TN govt for taking Chennai city down to 199th rank in cleanliness

CHENNAI: After Chennai slipped to the 199th spot in the list of cleanest cities in the country, Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami slammed the DMK regime for taking the city down on cleanliness.

In the AIADMK regime, the city ranked 45 and 43 in Swachh Survekshan, a cleanliness survey conducted by the Centre, among 446 cities in the country, in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

“After the DMK returned to power, the city’s cleanliness has taken a hit as it slipped to 199 spots in the survey conducted for 2023. This is testimony to the Stalin government’s poor administration, and the people have also regretted voting for them, said Palaniswami in a statement.

Citing the Swachh SIrvekshan survey, in which the overall score of Chennai was 4,313 out of 9,500, EPS said that the present dispensation had increased the property taxes twice and also hiked other taxes to burden the denizens, but it failed to keep the city clean.

“Though the city has people-elected councillors, Mayor and Health Minister Ma Subramanian, and also CM Stalin, who was the former Mayor, the city is left in a pathetic condition. People are regretting voting for the DMK,” he said. “If the current administration had completed the projects launched in the AIADMK regime, it would have helped the city to remain clean.”

He demanded the Stalin-led government and his cabinet to follow the work culture of the AIADMK regime like cleaning the garbage on a daily basis, carrying out repair and maintenance of roads in the city, guaranteeing supply of drinking water and clearing the sewage to maintain the cleanliness of the city.