Corporation of Chennai
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Greater Chennai Corporation பெருநகர சென்னை மாநகராட்சி |
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Corporation Commissioner
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D. Karthigeyan IAS
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B. Maheswari IAS
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| Ripon Building | |
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| chennaicorporation |
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The Chennai Municipal Corporation (officially the Greater Chennai Corporation), formerly known as the Corporation of Madras, is the civic body that governs the city of Chennai (formerly Madras), 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 headed by a mayor, who presides over 200 councillors each of whom represents one of the 200 wards of the city. It is also the second oldest corporation in the world, after the city of London.
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 establishment 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.
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