The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Reader's Mail

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Monday, Jan 09, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Reader's Mail

Customer-friendly bank staff

I am a senior citizen and a defence pensioner. I have been drawing my pension through the T. Nagar branch of the Central Bank of India for well over a decade.

Every time I visit the bank, I am pleasantly surprised at the courtesy and consideration shown by the entire bank staff in dealing with customers, especially with elderly people like me.

The cordiality and efficiency of the bank staff is both comforting and reassuring. Having had some unpleasant experiences in dealing with public sector banks in the past, I find this to be such an agreeable exception.

The bank has set an excellent example of how, given the will and resolve, nationalised banks can equal and even excel private enterprises -- including multinational corporations -- in customer care and business relationships.

Wg. Cdr. (Retd.)

A.N.B. Pillai,

Kotturpuram

Pay interest on

EB deposits

Before March 1981, the Electricity Board (EB) used to send individual monthly bills for the power consumed by each consumer and the bill amount could be paid at any collection point.

In the bill for March, the interest or dividend for the deposit amount would be deducted from the bill amount and the net amount payable would be shown in the bill.

After the introduction of spot billing and bi-monthly billing, the procedure for payment of interest was discontinued.

The consumers are in the dark now as to the amount of deposit in their account. A card may be issued to the consumers noting therein the deposit amount collected from them as fresh deposits are also demanded periodically.

Any security deposit paid is entitled to interest at the prevailing rates. The interest on the deposit accounts due from 1982 may be intimated and paid to the consumers by the Electricity Board according to its convenience.

A. Sundaresan,

West Mambalam

A signal that

does not work

The automatic signal installed at the junction of the Perambur Over Bridge and Paper Mills Road is yet to start functioning.

The authorities concerned should take action to activate the traffic signal at the earliest in the interests of the public.

S. Sivakumar,

Perambur

Subway in

poor state

The general public and the railway commuters of Chitlapakkam, Chromepet and East Tambaram heaved a sigh of relief when the Railway authorities opened a subway following the request of several associations, about six months back.

But the condition of the subway today is really pitiable. During the recent rainy season, water was seen leaking from the roof and now, even though the rain has stopped, a steady stream of water can be seen flowing from the western side of the subway to the eastern side in the make shift outlet (canal) constructed.

The result is that commuters are forced to avoid the subway, and cross the track unmindful of the danger involved.

We request the railway authorities to ensure proper maintenance of the subway in the interests of the public.

L. Sundararaman,

president,

Chitlapakkam Muthulakshmi

Nagar Welfare Association

Vendor menace at railway station

The St. Thomas Mount Railway Station is a very busy station, which caters to thousands of commuters all through the year. Most of the steps on the staircase of the foot over bridge at this station and also the open space near its landing outside are occupied by a large number of vendors, selling flowers, fruits and vegetables; in fact, the place is a veritable mini-market. This causes great inconvenience to the commuters.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) men carry out a perfunctory clean-up operation once in while. If the authorities can crack down on the vendors permanently, it would afford free access to the station.

J. Manohar Singh,

Adambakkam

Battered road

needs attention

After the recent monsoon, most of the roads in the city are in bad shape. A main thoroughfare, adjacent to Anna flyover, leading to Gopathy Narayanaswamy Road, T. Nagar appears to have borne the brunt: a stretch of 1000 metres has been pitted and scarred, and road users find it quite difficult to negotiate the stretch. If two-wheeler riders are not careful, the chances of skidding and falling are very high.

The authorities should act speedily to restore the damaged stretch of road.

N. Vijayaraghavan,

West Mambalam

More toilets at the airport, please

My aged uncle had a very distressing experience when he went to the International Airport in Chennai on December 23 to see off his cousin to Bahrain. The flight's departure was delayed by an hour and there was a big crowd.

After the plane's departure, he rushed to the toilet to relieve himself. When he reached the toilet, he was shocked to see a long line of people waiting for their turn to go to the toilet. There are only three at the Airport and that too with no water facility.

I request the airport authorities to maintain adequate number of toilets with piped water supply round the clock.

Md. Hasmathullah Sayeed,

Mylapore

Separate stops for share autos

In Tirumangalam, Anna Nagar, share autos sometimes stop near the bus stop and at other times nearly 200 metres away from the stop, particularly when the traffic police are present regulating vehicular traffic. As a result, during peak hours, the sight of commuters sprinting after share autos is common around here. It is time to have separate stops for share autos.

K. Pradeep

Mogappair

Nanganallur needs

better bus services

The public transport system in Nanganallur needs attention. Recently buses to Tambaram, Ambattur, Poonamalle and T.Nagar (52M) were introduced from Nanganallur only to be withdrawn soon after on the plea of `lack of adequate patronage.'

Due to sewer construction work, Nanganallur remained an island for long without any reliable public road transport system and the residents of this southern suburb became reconciled to the reality. Unless people are sure of availability of buses at reasonable frequency, they will not bother to wait at bus stops.

With the rise in the suburban population, there is an increased need for buses from Nanganallur to areas like Velacheri-Adyar-Besant Nagar-Thiruvanmaiyur, Pallavaram-Chromepet-Tambaram, K.K.Nagar-Porur-Virugambakkam-Poonamallee, Koyambedu, and to other western and northern parts of the city.

Bus services to these areas will be of great help to the public. A few `cut services' to Saidapet would also be useful.

R. Sampath

Nanganallur

MRTS station

in bad shape

The MRTS Light House Railway Station is used by commuters working in offices on R.K. Salai and students from the adjacent Queen Mary's College. Crores of rupees have been spent on building this railway station with the provision of escalators for the convenience of the public, leaving a lot of space vacant underneath the station (on the ground floor).

Unfortunately this vast space has been converted into a public lavatory. A foul smell greets commuters at the entrance itself; worse the conditions are conducive to the breeding of mosquitoes and are a health hazard to the commuters.

Will the authorities look into the matter and take necessary action to clean up the place and punish the miscreants?

B. Gokhale,

Korattur

Why the frequent power failures?

For the past 15 days there have been frequent power failures. It is surprising to note that whenever we call the EB staff, the typical reply we get is that the Padi feeder is having problems and therefore they have switched off the power. The power goes off five to six times every day without any prior notice. Will the TNEB higher authorities remedy the situation?

G. Abyvarghese,

President,

Senthil Nagar Youth &

Residents' Welfare Association

Project details

still not known

A long-felt need of Pallavaram citizens has been fulfilled by the Chief Minister by laying the foundation stone for the underground drainage project. We heartily welcome the project and thank the Chief Minister for the initiative. But, we also feel sad that the foundation laying ceremony was held at the Secretariat itself in a hurry, and that too without inviting the elected members of Pallavaram Municipal Council and Residents Associations.

When the scheme was announced, it was our Residents Associations, which mobilised the initial deposit amount from the residents for the project.

But for our cooperation the scheme would not have been possible. Further, as per the tender, the estimated cost of the project is Rs. 47 crore. But, now it has been increased to Rs. 52.70 crore.

The government should explain why the project cost has been increased by more than Rs. 5 crore. The CMWSSB is the nodal agency for the project. But, the public are kept in dark by the MWSSB in providing details of the project.

Will the CMWSSB publish all the relevant information with regard to Pallavaram underground drainage scheme for the benefit of the people?

V. Santhanam,

president,

Chromepet New Colony RWS

Proper roads

needed out here

The residents of AVM Nagar and suburbs belonging to Aadhanoor Village in Sriperumbudur Taluk, Kancheepuram District are suffering greatly due to the absence of proper roads to Urapakkam railway station or the bus stand.

During the recent rain, the residents had to contend with knee-deep water for more than 10 days.

The residents of the above areas represented the matter to the Panchayat, Block Development Officer (BDO), Padappai and the Collector, Kancheepuram District through letters and in person.

But no action has been taken by any of the above persons for laying metalled roads.

In the meantime, it is understood that the Government has sanctioned funds for laying metal roads for these Nagars (40' road leading to IHFD) about 2 to 3 months ago but the Highways Department has not taken any action till now (the road comes under the Highways Department).

Can we expect the District Collector to act and provide good roads without delay?

K. Ragothaman,

Aadhanoor

Re-build walls, repair expressway

This refers to a photo captioned "Battered & Bruised" (December 30, 2005), on the Ennore Expressway.

The entire stretch of Ennore Expressway upto the MFL Junction is in bad condition; MTC buses going towards Manali New town and Minjur onwards are skipping this route and taking an alternative route.

Because of this, the residents of Sathyamoorthy Nagar and Madura Nagar are suffering.

The Government took quick steps to do patch work on many flood damaged roads; it should act speedily to set this right too.

It should be noted that the flood protection walls on the side of the canal near the MFL Junction were damaged, which inundated the MFL Junction and surrounding villages with floodwater. This resulted in the total cessation of transport services towards Minjur for more than 7 days during the rainy season.

Further, the stones on both the sides of connecting bridge have fallen and become damaged posing a danger to motorists.

The government should take immediate steps to raise the protective walls and replace the fallen stones.

S. Sekar,

Manali New Town

Rising number of fatal accidents

It was distressing to read the report (December 28) of how three persons were killed in road accidents in and around City.

What was shocking was that in two cases the vehicles involved were government transport corporation buses and the third one was a sand-laden lorry.

Worse, they all took place within a time span of just two days.

In the first accident it was reported that the person killed was a wage earner who was walking home after work when a Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) bus hit him.

In the second accident, a State Transport bus had knocked down a person who was an Office Assistant in a Government Department; the victim died on the spot. In the third incident reported, a person was run over by a sand-laden lorry and killed on the spot.

The real tragedy is that the families of all the persons killed in the accidents have lost their bread-winners.

Road accidents seem to be occurring quite often these days. Most of the accidents seem to occur because of the rash and negligent driving by the drivers of buses of the transport corporations and lorry drivers.

The law enforcement authorities must seize the licences of drivers involved in such accidents.

S. Jayabalan,

West Mambalam

Kotturpuram

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