The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Reporter's Diary

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Reporter's Diary

A flood of wishes

A senior official from the Education department attended a State conference of private schools recently. The organisers were thrilled that he made an appearance and flooded him with `ponnadais' (shawls). A row of school heads queued up enthusiastically and enveloped the official with shawls and hand-shakes. Visibly taken aback, the official said he felt that he was being given a retirement "send-off" instead of a welcome. "My retirement is still about 14 months away," he quipped.

Invisible policing

Besides absence of regulation and indiscriminate parking of autorickshaws, road-users have to be cautious of crowds that quarrel on the middle of the road. The other day, around noon, buses and other automobiles had to give a wide berth to a few persons who were quarrelling on the middle of Whannels Road, Egmore, only a few feet away from the Police Commissioner's office. Despite being a busy area, there was no sign of any policeman or patrol. Such a law and order situation could have been easily avoided had the "visible policemen" were alert.

Neighbours' woes

The noise-makers were at it again. At Mogappair, a household mourning the death of a family member in a 10th day ceremony (it actually looked like celebration), the first ones to arrive on the scene were two big box loud-speakers. Immediately after the audio equipment arrived, the situation turned into "Owner's joy, neighbours' sorrow." Religious music was blaring through the speakers and even shutting doors and windows couldn't prevent the invasion by the sound that engulfed residents nearby like a giant tidal wave. Residents who usually lodge a complaint to the police or the Pollution Control Board, this time around just thought it fit to suffer and surrender to the barrage of noise gushing forth.

Stray dogs

The proliferation of stray dogs in public places and residential zones is fast assuming menacing proportions. The Marina, the city's most sought-after recreation spot, has of late been taken over by stray dogs. Beach-lovers, particularly morning joggers, are displeased over sharing the beach with roaming canines. Two-wheeler users in the city form another category who are disturbed by stray dogs during the night. Along several lanes, groups of dogs on the prowl pose a hazard to life and limb.

Why, the problem is also manifest in the SAF Games Village campus, Koyambedu, home to a chunk of the city's bureaucracy and police officers. What is even worse there, according to a resident, is that at least one legally owned dog is let loose among the stray dogs at night.

Wanted: rooms

While the political parties are running behind the voters in the Kancheepuram constituency, a section of policemen is scouting around the hotels in the town booking rooms for their senior police officers, who are expected to arrive here in a few days, in view of the elections. Since the Government-owned Circuit House and Travellers Bungalow have already been occupied by Election Observers and the State-level officers, keys of air-conditioned and double rooms that were available in posh hotels in the town were grabbed by the district police for providing accommodation to the visiting officers.

Non air-conditioned rooms in hotels and lodges were also booked by the local police for providing accommodation to their counterparts who have been deputed from other districts to Kancheepuram for election duty.

(Contributions from Dhanya Parthasarathy, K.T. Sangameswaran, Swahilya, M. Dinesh Varma and V. Venkatasubramanian [from Kancheepuram])

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