TRICHY: Trichy corporation council, that officially came into existence on Wednesday, has only 23 councillors who are graduates. Of the 60 councillors who have mentioned their educational qualification in their affidavits, MPhil was the maximum academic qualification of the elected representatives and a pass in class V the lowest. Around 24 councillors have not completed their formal school education.
At the swearing-in ceremony in a packed council hall, several representatives showed nervousness and troubles in completing the oath independently. Based on the information submitted in the nomination forms, around 60 councillors have recorded their educational qualification while five have not. The DMK councillor for ward 15, C Thangalakshmi, with MPhil has the highest educational qualification among them. Independent councillor LIC Shankar from ward 20, L Rex from ward 39, AMMK councillor P Senthilnathan, all have MBA as their highest education qualification. DMK candidates K Kalaiselvi from ward 53, N Senthil from ward 43, mayor candidate Mu Anbalagan from ward 27 and Congress councillors S Sujatha from ward 31 and P Govindarajan from ward 41 were among the very few postgraduates. Seven councillors completed only class VIII while three women councillors have completed class V. There are also four diploma holders among the 60 who furnished their educational qualifications while three hold a degree in law.
As far as the age of the elected councillors is concerned, 47 is the average age of the 65-member elected council. The youngest two councillors, both of DMK, namely K Lakshmi Devi from ward 1 and G Divya from ward 33, are aged 27. The oldest councillor is also from DMK, O Neelamegam from ward 42 aged 67. There are seven councillors aged 60 and above. Around 74% of the elected councillors in Trichy corporation are aged between 40 and 59 years. Only three councillors are in the 20-29 years age group.
