Greater Chennai Corporation

This article is about administration of the City of Chennai. For administration of the Chennai Metropolitan Area, see Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority.

Greater Chennai Corporation
Logo Coat of Arms Greater Chennai Corporation
Type
Type	Municipal Corporation of the Greater Chennai
History
Founded	29 September 1688 (1688-09-29)
Leadership
Mayor	Office suspended since October 2016 due to postponed elections
Deputy Mayor	Office suspended since October 2016 due to postponed elections
Commissioner	Gagandeep Singh Bedi, IAS
District Collector	J. Vijaya Rani, IAS
Seats	200
Meeting place
Ripon Building
Website
chennaicorporation.gov.in

The Greater Chennai Corporation, formerly known as the Corporation of Madras (1668-1996) and Corporation of Chennai (1996-2016), is the civic body that governs the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Inaugurated on 29 September 1688, under a Royal Charter issued by King James II on 30 December 1687 as the Corporation of Madras, it is the oldest municipal body of the Commonwealth of Nations outside Great Britain. It is among the oldest municipalities in Asia after Daman Municipality, which was established in 1588. It is the largest municipal corporation is Tamil Nadu with an area of 426 km². It is headed by a mayor, who presides over 200 councillors each of whom represents one of the 200 wards of the city. It is the second oldest city civic body in the world after the City of London.

History

The Madras Corporation is the oldest municipal body of the Commonwealth of Nations outside the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1688 to control the powers of the Governor of Madras, Elihu Yale. The corporation was created by a Royal Charter issued on 30 December 1687 by King James II on the advice of the chairman of the East India Company, Josiah Child, on the model of Dutch Government in the East Indies. The charter constituted the existing town of Fort St. George and all the territories belonging to the town, not exceeding a distance of ten miles from the Fort, into a Corporation. The Parliamentary Act of 1792 conferred the new Corporation power to levy municipal taxes in the city. The municipal administration also commenced from this act, making provision for the administration of the city. The Municipal Act continued to be amended, constantly introducing major changes in the constitution and powers of the corporation from time to time.

Prior to the establishments of the corporation, the Governor of Madras or the company's agent managed the affairs of the Fort St George and its residents with the assistance of a headman, an accountant, and the head of watch and ward. The Governor sat as Madras's Justice of the Peace. Taxes were introduced by Governor Streynsham Master (1678–1681). Complications arising out of these impositions and the growing expenses of an expanding town led to Sir Josiah drawing up plans for a more formal body of civic administration. The corporation was inaugurated on 29 September 1688 with power to decide on petty cases, levy rates upon the inhabitants for building of schools, a town hall and a jail, when the new Mayor, 12 Aldermen and 60 Burgesses took their oaths. The first members of the corporation were representatives from diverse ethnicities. Nathaniel Higginson was the first Mayor, and he appointed representatives from the English, Scottish, French, Portuguese, and Indian mercantile communities as Aldermen. The post of the Mayor was held for one year at a time, the Mayor being elected by the Aldermen, whose term of office was for life.

By 1856, the duties of the Corporation became more clearly defined. In 1919, the Aldermen were re-styled as 'Councillors'. The title of 'Mayor' had been replaced by 'President', and P. Theagaraya Chetty was nominated as president, the first Indian to be so chosen. However, the office of Mayor was re-created in 1933, when Kumararajah M. A. Muthiah Chettiar made the transition from last President to first new Mayor. The mayoralty has remained thereafter.

By 1901, the corporation had grown to encompass an area of 68 sq km comprising 30 territorial divisions with a population of 540,000. In 1913, the Corporation moved to the newly constructed Ripon Building, which was built on parts of the People's Park. The building was named after Lord Ripon who, as Viceroy of India from 1880 to 1884, had introduced local government reforms. He is remembered in a statue in the Corporation precincts. The first native Indian to both govern the Madras Presidency and later serve as Mayor of erstwhile Madras was the Honourable K. Sriramulu Naidu, who served during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1978, the boundaries of the area administrated by the corporation was increased to 174 sq km.

The Madras Municipal Corporation Act, 1919 (as amended) provides the basic statutory authority for the administration now.

Zone

Expansion

In October 2011, the expansion process was initiated before the elections to the corporation council in October. In this move, 42 small local bodies, including 9 municipalities, 8 town panchayats and 25 village panchayats, were merged with Chennai Corporation, taking the area up by 140% to 426 km² from the earlier 176 km². Some areas have been arbitrarily left out, to the discontent of the residents of those areas. The new expanded Corporation of Chennai has 200 wards, an increase of 45 wards. Elections were held for the expanded corporation in October 2011.

The erstwhile municipalities that became a part of expanded Chennai Corporation are Kathivakkam, Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Ambattur, Maduravoyal, Valasaravakkam, Alandur and Ullagaram–Puzhuthivakkam.

The erstwhile town panchayats that became a part of expanded Chennai Corporation are Chinnasekkadu, Puzhal, Porur, Nandambakkam, Meenambakkam, Perungudi, Pallikaranai and Sholinganallur.

The erstwhile panchayat unions that became a part of expanded Chennai Corporation are Edayanchavadi, Sadayankuppam, Kadapakkam, Theeyampakkam, Mathur, Vadaperumbakkam, Surapet, Kathirvedu, Puthagaram, Nolambur, Karambakkam, Nerkundram, Ramapuram, Mugalivakkam, Manapakkam, Kottivakkam, Palavakkam, Neelankarai, Injambakkam, Karapakkam, Okkiam Thoraipakkam, Madipakkam, Jalladiampet, Semmanchery and Uthandi.