The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Good approach road, poor facilities

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 03, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Good approach road, poor facilities

R. Sujatha

Open manholes, no streetlights ... problems galore in Mathur township

UNCOVERED MANHOLES: A crater on the Mathur-Manali Kamaraj Salai junction is covered with tyres. Most streets go without streetlights in Mathur. — Photo: M. Vedhan

CHENNAI: The well-laid approach road from Madhavaram Milk Colony to the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) Colony in Mathur hides more than what it reveals.

For four kilometres on Manali Kamarajar Salai leading to the panchayat, there are no streetlights.

Roads have not been laid inside the panchayat. The streetlight on II Main Road in Mathur has not been replaced for many months.

"We told the panchayat officials that we would pay for the bulb. They agreed because they thought we would also replace it," said a resident.

Lampposts have not been installed along the one km-long lake bund. V. Rathinam, head of a 600-member self-help group, says women are afraid to venture out after 6 p.m.

The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has offered to take up electrification work provided the panchayat bears the cost of installing lampposts, residents say.

Meanwhile, the TNHB tried to auction the panchayat's police station in August 2004 but there was no response. "Who will pay Rs. 1 crore for a building?" asks a resident.

The Directorate of Fire Services is awaiting orders for takeover of the fire station, says a TNHB letter dated October 4, 2004.

Stagnant sewage

Central and State Government employees opted to settle here when buildings came up under a government scheme in 1992. In many places, where houses are classified according to income groups, provision was made for toilets but houses were not built. Sewage stagnates in these vacant plots. The area, with excellent groundwater supply, also has wells without raised compound walls.

People have dug canals to let sewage into the Madhavaram lake or into the open wells — all sources of drinking water. Sumps laid for piped water supply by the Chennai Metrowater Supply and Sewage Board has become sewage tanks immersing checkpoints and valves.

A plant built to carry sewage from the panchayat to Kodungaiyur for treatment lies idle. In most streets, manholes have been left open.

N. Santhanam, living in Mathur since 1993, says the Metrowater Board handed over 42 motors and `pump sucking points' to the panchayat along with a sum for maintenance work.

Residents continue to pay Rs. 45 as water tax and hope that the Metrowater Board will step in.

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