Upgrading of Tuticorin municipality proposed

The long awaited dream of residents here to have their town attaining the status of Corporation is likely to be materialised as the municipal administration has prepared a proposal for upgrading.

According to official sources, the document would be sent to the Government in a week.

The draft prepared by the administration has suggested merger of municipality with local bodies situated adjacent to the municipal limits.

The move has been necessitated, owing to the fact that municipality alone does not have adequate population or revenue to attain the Corporation status.

Sources said that to get the status of Corporation, the population should be more than five lakh and annual revenue from taxes like professional, property taxes, rentals and license fees, should exceed Rs.30 crore.

Presently, the population in the Tuticorin town (municipal limits) stands at 2,16,058 as per 2001 census and the income is just Rs.18 crore.

Accordingly, the proposal has suggested merger of a total of 28 village panchayats extending from Swaminatham situated North West, Tharuvaikulam situated North East, Mudivaithanenthal at South East to Pazhayakayal village panchayat situated south, all spreading over an area of 353.07 sq km.

The amalgamation will take the population to 4,36,094, close to the stipulated benchmark.

“This will not be a hindrance from getting the Corporation status considering that the figures were based on census taken about six years ago and the population will surely have crossed five lakh mark by now,” sources said.

Similarly, the proposed merger will peg the revenue at about Rs.26 crore. “It is okay since there is a considerable increment in the revenue of municipality and the village panchayats that are to be merged,” sources pointed out.

Sources said that once the municipality became a Corporation, there would be a greater inflow of grants under various schemes, which was essential to improve infrastructure to commensurate exponential growth expected in Tuticorin once the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project would be commissioned next year.

Source: The Hindu