Dr Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India rightly said in October 1958 that the age of the Corporation of Madras no less than its record of public work holds it out as an example to other civic bodies in India. It is known to be the oldest civic body in India, if not the East.

It was in the days of the East India Company that the Municipal Government was first introduced in Madras. The year 1688 marked the formal birth of the Madras Corporation. It was to look after the development of the city in so far as the social services, maintenance of law and order and the protection of citizens were concerned. Josiah Child, the then Governor of Court of Directors took the lead in the preparation of a Plan for the declaration of a Charter by East India Company as agreed to by British King on the 30th September 1687. The Charter, inter alia said, "We, the said Governor and Company, having found by experience and the practice of other European Nations in India that the making and establishing of Corporation in Cities and Towns that are grown exceedingly populous tends more to the well governing of such populous places, ordain and constitute our Town of Fort St. George, commonly called the Christian Town and City of Madrassapatanam upon the coast of Choromandel and all the territories thereto

belonging, not exceeding the distance of ten miles from Fort St. George, to be a Corporation under us by the name and Title of the Mayor." The Charter was proclaimed at Fort St. George on the 29th September, 1688 and Mr. Nathaniel Higginson become first Mayor of Madras.

The Chennai Corporation is thus 320. It was indeed appropriate that people from all walks of life gathered on Sunday to celebrate the anniversary. The city has grown beyond recognition. Its population, for example was less than forty thousand when it became a Corporation. Now it is 50.17 lakhs. There were 15 streetlights in 1914. Now it has multiplied to 1.24 lakhs. Yet it remains inadequate.

Sometime back, when I went to Ripon Buildings - incidentally, Viceroy Lord Ripon was pioneer in the promotion of Local Self Government in India. He made these institutions as "instruments of political and popular education" - I was given a motto-plate that had on it inscribed a picture of the building and a quotation that read, "I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again."-Stephen Grellet. Let's hope the Corporation of Chennai would continue its record of service to its citizens, if not to mankind as a whole.

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