Opposition (3)
Others (6)
The Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation is the municipal corporation which looks after the city administration of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It consists of a legislative and an executive body. The legislative body is headed by the city mayor while the executive body is headed by a Chief Commissioner.
The municipality of Tiruchirapalli was inaugurated by the Town Improvements Act 1865 on 1 November 1866 and included the civil station as well as the Trichinopoly Cantonment. The municipality originally consisted of two ex-officio and nine nominated members.[1] Elections to the council were introduced in 1877 and the first chairman was elected in 1889.[1] Elections were stopped in September 1895 and remained so until July 1897. The appointment of a municipal secretary was sanctioned by the Madras Government in 1898.[1] Following the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms, an Indian mayor was elected from 1921. The first Indian mayor was probably the Indian national congress independence activist, F. G. Natesa Iyer- who was also an officer with the South Indian Railway Company, the largest industrial enterprise, then in Trichinopoly.[2] Indian independence activist P. Rathinavelu Thevar served as the Chairman of Trichinopoly municipality for a record five terms from 1924 to 1946. Thevar's tenure was, however, highly controversial and he was dismissed in 1934 for administrative irregularities.[3] Thevar's rival T. S. S. Rajan accused him of instigating anti-Brahmin and anti-Muslim violence in the city.[3][4]
A municipality of Srirangam was created in 1871 per the Town Improvements Act of 1865 following a decision not to include Srirangam within Trichinopoly municipality as it lay extremely far from the heart of Tiruchirappalli town.[5] The municipality of Srirangam included most of Srirangam Island including Thiruvanaikaval.[5] Golden Rock, with a population of 38,880 as per the 1971 census, was constituted a third-grade municipality on 1 October 1972 and upgraded to a II-Grade municipality on 5 October 1978.
There were demands to merge Tiruchi and Srirangam municipalities in September 1930 and October 1933. Rathinavelu Thevar submitted a memorandum to Lord Goschen requesting the upgrading of Tiruchi to a municipal corporation and extending it up to Manachanallur.[6] Tiruchirappalli was eventually designated municipal corporation in 1994 through the merger of Srirangam and Golden Rock municipalities as per the Tiruchirapalli City Municipal Corporation Act 1994.[7] The municipal corporation currently covers an area of 164.70 km2 and comprises 65 wards and 4 administrative zones: Srirangam, Ariyamangalam, Golden Rock and Abhishekapuram.[8]
The Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation Council, the legislative body, comprises 100 councillors elected from each of the 65 wards and is headed by the Worshipful Mayor assisted by a Deputy Mayor.[9] The executive wing is made up of seven departments: general administration, revenue, town planning, engineering, public health, information technology and personnel and is headed by a City Commissioner. The Commissioner is assisted by a city engineer, a city health officer, two executive engineers for the east and west sections, and Assistant Commissioners for personnel, accounts and revenue departments, a public relations officer, and an Assistant Commissioner for each of the four zones.[10]
The civic administration of the city is divided into four zones - Abhishekapuram, Ariyamangalam, Golden Rock and Srirangam.[10] The engineering department, however, is divided into two zones - East and West.[10] The zones and the wards which come under each of them have been listed below.
Water supply is provided by the Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation.[16] Of the six headworks from which the city gets its water supply, four are maintained by the municipal corporation and the rest by other agencies.[17] Apart from the Gandhi market, Central Bus terminus and the Chathiram bus terminus, solid waste management in the city is handled by the corporation.[17] About 400 tonnes of solid waste are released from city every year.[18] The principal garbage dumping ground is at Ariyamangalam.[19] Recently, the Tiruchirappalli city corporation has gone in for scientific closure of the garbage dump and its replacement with a sewage treatment plant.[19] Waste water management in the Trichy-Srirangam under ground drainage (UGD) areas are handled by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) and in other areas by the Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation.[17] The high toxicity of the waste water released by the Trichy Distilleries and Chemicals Limited (TDCL) is a major cause of concern for the corporation.[20] The corporation's annual expenditure for the year 2010-11 is estimated to be Rs. 155.94 crores.[21] The corporation also maintains public parks in Tiruchirappalli city, notable among them being the P. T. Rajan Park, Chinnaswamy Park, Lourdusamy Park, Raja Park, Parangiri Velusamy Park and Ibrahim Park.[22]
The first elections for the post of mayor were held in 1996, two years after Tiruchirappalli's upgradation to a municipal corporation.[23]
Party wise councillors won (65 wards)
ADMK-42
DMK- 16
MDMK-3
INC-1
DMDK-1
Independent-2
F.G. Natesa Iyer, who was a senior official of the South Indian Railway Company, was the first elected Indian chairman of Tiruchi Municipality.