Five years saw many changes

CHENNAI: The five-year stint of M Subramanian (now DMK nominee for the post) as the Mayor of the Chennai from 2006 to 2011 is viewed by many as a period that brought in many positive changes.Under Subramanian, Chennai Corporation became the first local body in India to announce free burial and cremation besides free birth/death certificates to all in 2008. During the period, 10 bridges and flyovers were constructed in a bid to ease congestion.In an effort to eliminate the psychological barriers in parents’ minds, whose children are studying in Chennai Corporation-run schools, the Mayor in 2010 announced the dropping of ‘Corporation’ tag from its institutions and rechristened them as Chennai Schools.Meanwhile, the civic body’s on-the-spot grievances redressal programme drew good response from the public. Subramanian was also able to retrieve civic body’s land worth over `4,000 crore.Besides this, the Corporation won laurels in national and international arena. The ‘World Leadership Award’ for its programme on promoting life skills and HIV prevention education among adolescents in Chennai schools by the London-based World Leadership Forum in 2007, national award for excellence in municipal initiatives in 2007, ISO certifications for three Corporation facilities and Skoch Award for its online integrated public grievance and redressal facilities were among the recognitions.