Urbanization Fastest in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Tamil Nadu was on the top among the States in rapid urbanization registering a growth in urban population that stood at 48.45 percent in 2011 as against the national average of 31.16 per cent due to the policies of the DMK government led by M K Stalin that has been allocating Rs 1000 crore a year for the Kalaignar Urban Development Scheme.

Presenting the State Budget for 1971-72, former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said that people in rural areas should have urban facilities at some point of time and gave emphasis on improving water supply, road infrastructure, setting up street lamps and developing transportation.

Since then, the State had been making rapid progress in urbanization and had even earned laurels and recognitions for its achievements on that front.

In 2023 it climbed up the ranking in cleanliness to the 10th position in the country from the earlier 22nd place. Trichy came first among the cities with over 1 lakh population and Maraimalainagar was number one among municipalities with less than 1 lakh population. Keevellore town panchayat was number one among towns below 15,000 population in the southern States.

Apart from allocating funds to improve urban infrastructure like Rs 8,911 crore for underground sewage system, on which work was in full swing and Rs 6,778 crore for constructing storm water drainage, the government had also made large scale appointments in Corporation and Municipalities to improve their functioning.

While 1405 persons were appointed in the Group C and D grades in the civic bodies, the Anna University was tasked with conducting recruitment examinations for getting candidates to fill up 2,500 vacancies and another 3000 others would also be recruited soon, officials said.

As of now the State has 21 Corporations, 138 Municipalities and 1490 town panchayats after the norms for the classification were revised. So, many town panchayats became Municipalities and more Municipalities became Corporations.

The revised norms stipulated that a panchayat union having a population of 10,000 people and an annual revenue of Rs 10 lakh could become a town panchayat and a town panchayat with a population of 30,000 and income of Rs 50 lakh could become a Municipality. To be declared a Corporation a Municipality should have a population of over three lakh and an income of Rs 30 crore.

With such reclassifications leading to the growth in urban facilities in the State, the scope of the Municipal Administration Department has increased tremendously and the government too has devised a plethora of new schemes for the urban population