About Madurai Corporation

It is narrated in legend that Madurai was originally a forest known as Kadambavanam. One day, a farmer named
Dhananjaya who was passing through the forest, saw Indra (The king of the gods), worshipping a swayambhu
(self created Lingam ) under kadamba tree. Dhananjaya, the farmer immediately reported this to King
Kulasekara Pandya. Kulasekara Pandya cleared the forest and built a temple around the Lingam. A city was
soon planned with the temple as its centre. On the day the city was to be named, Lord Shiva is said to have
appeared and drops of nectar from his hair fell on the town. So, the place was named Madurai - mathuram
meaning "sweetness" in Tamil.
The entire Madurai Corporation administration is broadly divided into 2 distinct wings. They are deliberative
wing and executive wing. Some decades ago, the deliberative wing had only limited controls over the
administration with little powers. But now having democracy as the basis ,The deliberative wing has more
powers to control the administration. For example the elected body not only formulates policy to be followed by
the administration but also decides appointments ,promotion ,disciplinary appeals etc .,and approve budget and
expenditure. The Madurai Corporation deliberative wing consists of a Council with all the Councilors as
Members and 6 standing Committees. The elected Council period is 5 years .Each standing committee has one
Chairman and 5 members. The members of the Committees are elected by the Council by secret ballot. The
Chairman of the each Committee is elected by the members of that committee. The period of the office of the
Chairman is one year.
Apart from these committees, two Councilors are elected by the Council as members of the Tax Appeal
Committee which disposes the tax appeals preferred by the tax payers. The Appointment Committee consists of
the Mayor, the Commissioner and the Councilor elected by the council as members. The same committee will
function as Disciplinary Appeal Committee which disposes appeals preferred by the employees against the
punishments imposed on them by the Corporation authority. The Council has powers to appoint the committees
on specific issues. The Act also provides Joint Committees to discuss issues common to 2 or more Committees.
In the absence of the elected council, Special Officer appointed by the Government will function as the Council
and the Committees.
Executive Wing
The Madurai City Municipal Commissioner is the Chief Executive of the Corporation. The Madurai City
Municipal Commissioner is appointed by the Government .Generally, an Officer of Indian Administrative
Service is appointed as Commissioner. The Commissioner has over all control of the Corporation
Administration. The MCMC Act 1971 clearly gives several powers to the Commissioner to carry out all the
functions of the Corporation. But his powers are restricted subject to the approval of the Council and the
Committees as the case may be.
The entire Corporation administration is divided into several Departments. Each department is specifically
assigned one or more functions .Each department function under the control of a Class I officer .The Class-I
Officers functions under the direct control of the Commissioner.
To assist the Class-I Officer most of the departments are having Class- II Officers .Also each Department is
having Class-III and Class -IV employees.