The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Residents take to streets

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 29, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Residents take to streets

Staff Reporter

Protest against sewage overflow; complaints to civic body fruitless

CITIZENS' IRE: Residents of Madanandapuram complaining to the block development officer of Kundrathur about the sewage overflow on Thursday morning. — Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

CHENNAI: About 300 residents from Madanandapuram near Porur blocked traffic on Kundrathur Road on Thursday morning to draw attention to the sewage overflow in their colony. Traffic was paralysed for about three hours.

Residents of SSL Greenpark Apartments and Mugalivakkam Road resorted to a sudden `road roko' as the sewage water surrounded some houses and shops. Rainwater mixed with sewage had stagnated in the open ground allocated by the Mugalivakkam Village Panchayat for a park and playground, they said.

The complex had 130 dwelling units. After treatment, the sewage water was let out from the housing complex into a vacant plot. The compound wall around the site had collapsed on Wednesday night. The stagnant water flooded the neighbouring complex, residents said.

The Kundrathur Panchayat Union Block Development Officer, Mohideen, and police personnel told the protestors that he would seek approval from the Kancheepuram District Collector for construction of storm water drains. Only then did the residents disperse.

A resident, Sethuraman said the sewage problem was one of long standing. "Several complaints to the civic body and to the district administration have not yielded any response," he said. The residents' welfare association had spent huge amounts of money to pump out the water.

Mahalingam, ward councillor, Mugalivakkam Village Panchayat, said he had raised the problem at every council meeting. He later supervised the removal of sewage by lorries.

The panchayat president, Ramakrishnan, said the panchayat board had passed a resolution for the construction of storm water drains at an estimated cost of Rs. 35 lakhs, and had forwarded the resolution to the district administration. He told the residents that he would meet the District Collector to expedite the work.

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