"Mess" is the new TMC chief’s first priority

Chandrashekar said he was confident that he would live up to the expectations of those who had deputed him to Thane for the task. He observed that he would have to “set right the mess that was the order of the day in the corporation”. He appealed to corporators, officials and citizens to help him achieve his plans. The two major issues he stressed on were road widening and the razing of unauthorised constructions and encroachments. Chandrashekhar expressed concern that the pre-monsoon works had not been given priority. The tenders have not been finalised in spite of the fact that the monsoons are round the corner. Chandrashekhar claimed he meant business, and would see to it that the best of work would be done in the shortest of time. The new commissioner has deviated from the standard procedure, much to the surprise of civic officials, by distributing the pre-monsoon works among 11 co-operative societies instead of one single contractor. The city has now been divided into 11 zones, and work has been alloted to the labour cooperative societies. He opined that by doing this, it would be possible to get the expected work done on time, as the co-operative societies would be able to employ the services of hundreds of labourers, something a big contractor would not be able to. ”