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

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 22, 2007
ePaper


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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Reader's Mail

An ordeal for women passengers

On 8-1-2007, I was travelling in a State-owned route bus bound for Tiruvallur from Chingleput terminus. The bus was packed capacity with a large number of standing passengers. The seats meant for ladies were fully occupied by male passengers and the conductor did not dare to ask them to vacate. The ladies had to stand all along. This is a regular occurrence in mofussil buses. The transport authority is requested to give suitable instructions to their crews concerned to ease the ordeal of women passengers.

N.B.S. Manian,
Manavalanagar

Alternative road to Keelkattalai

It is heartening to note that the Moovarasampet Main Road has been relaid with concrete and is ready for use. Similarly some of the inner roads of Nanganallur have been blacktopped to the great delight of the residents, for which they are thankful to the authorities.

I would like to suggest an alternative road along the Madipakkam lake from Sabari Salai leading to Ayyappa temple and Srinivasa Perumal Koil near Rajendra Nagar which joins Medavakkam Main Road near the Church and Kilkattalai Bus terminus.

Previously the road was a convenient alternative road for two wheelers, cyclists and small vehicles.

But after the monsoon rains the road has been rendered useless due to flooding making the road slushy. This road, if laid afresh with proper blacktopping can serve as a hassle-free road for the two-wheelers and cyclists to reach Kilkattalai.

I request the authorities to consider the suggestion for the benefit of hundreds of commuters, going to Keelkattalai and beyond. This will also ease the congestion on Medavakkam Main Road a lot. The road may be laid after raising the bunds of the Madipakkam lake along the existing road in Ayyappa Nagar to protect it from floodwaters inundating the road. The rain-damaged Medavakkam Main Road too needs immediate attention for smooth flow of traffic.

D. Natarajan,
Nanganallur

Turn over road to Corporation

This has reference to the Reporters' Diary item captioned, `No end to suffering' (The Hindu, 2-1-2007).

Since the road starting from New Avadi Road (near the Furnishing Shop of ICF) and Villivakkam railway station (via ICF link road) remains uncared for by ICF and Southern Railway for years now, the entire stretch of the road is in bad shape with piling up of garbage. It is time the railway authorities entrust the entire stretch of link road to the Chennai Corporation for maintenance. This will go a long way towards meeting the needs of the public in the area besides the employees of ICF.

K. Ramadoss,
Ayanavaram

Traffic rule guide needed

A traffic guide in English and Tamil on traffic rules and regulations, signs and signals and punishment to violators is a long felt need by road-users in Chennai. This will benefit the public, besides reducing road accidents in the city.

The traffic wing of the police could bring out this guide and make it available at all traffic stations and bus depots and other places of public utility.

P.V. Srinivasan,
Sastri Nagar

Indirect hike in bus fare

The Limited Stop Service buses popularly known as L.S.S. were introduced by MTC (then PTC) about 15 years back in almost all city route buses. A nominal 25 paise was charged over and above the ordinary fare on each ticket to travel in these buses. These buses used to skip some intervening stops and thus their running time was curtailed.

Consequent to the increase in bus fares a few years back, the additional charge for LSS was also hiked to 50 paise per ticket.

But, of late, the MTC authorities have introduced `M' Service on almost all routes in addition to the existing ordinary and LSS services. The minimum fare in these buses i.e. with the letter `M' prefixed to the route number is Rs.3/- as against Rs.2/- or Rs.2.50 in other services. Thus, the commuters are forced to pay Re.1/- over and above the normal fare. The pity is, these buses halt at each and every stop unlike the LSS.

The original intention of the Government was to introduce mini bus services to places in the city and outskirts, which are not directly connected by regular services. But, in practice, the MTC authorities have withdrawn a couple of buses from the existing routes and modified them as `M' services. This has not only resulted in reduction of buses on each route but also forced the travelling public to pay more. This sort of indirect hike in fare in MTC buses needs to be discouraged. The MTC authorities should think of adding to the fleet strength on each service taking into account the demand and patronage from the public.

S. Jayabalan,
West Mambalam

EMU on the opposite platform

At Tambaram, long distance Super Fast/Express Trains halt at the BG Platform and the passengers who want to take the suburban trains to alight at intermediate stations have to necessarily climb the staircase to get into an electric multiple unit (EMU) train.

To reach platform No.1 or platform No.2 from the BG Platform it takes a minimum of 10 minutes with heavy luggage in hand, and commuters, particularly senior citizens are put to great hardship paying heavy charges to the porters, who fleece the passengers!

We request the Southern Railway to start an EMU opposite platform where the long distance trains halt at Tambaram, so that the problem of carting luggage a long distance can be avoided. Further, we request the railways to introduce escalator facility as in Egmore for the connience of passengers.

V. Santhanam,
President,
Chromepet Rail Users Forum,
Chromepet

Manual scavenging — a social evil

It is gratifying to note that the Chief Minister had promised recently that a master plan would be presented in the State Assembly in January 2007 to eradicate manual scavenging.

The existence of this social evil was reported two years ago in Madurai Corporation limits. The fact that it is prevalent in Tamil Nadu is distressing despite the presence of law enforcing machinery.

I recall the assurance made by the then Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee during 2002 to the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, Justice J.S. Verma that steps would be taken to put an end to this inhuman, barbaric and degrading practice in the country.

I wish both the Centre and States would work jointly to create general awareness among the people and express their resolve to eliminate this inhuman practice entirely, at any rate, at least by the next Gandhi Jayanthi day, 2nd October 2007.

S. Gopalan,
Maraimalai Nagar

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