Thursday, November 13, 2008

Misery in Alapakkam

We live in Ashtalakshmi Nagar, Alapakkam, a suburb of Chennai coming under the Maduravoyal Municipality. When we moved here last December, we had a road that was not entirely motorable, but at least usable if you drove carefully though it was more of a dirt track. We have two access roads from our street (13th street).

In August this year, the Maduravoyal Municipality decided to break the existing stormwater drains along the two roads and rebuild them. The concrete rubble from the old drains was dumped right till the middle of the road while the work on the new drains started a couple of weeks later.

The work was sporadic and it took them more than a month to complete the work -- about 50 metres of drain length. Finally after the drains were completed, we thought they would continue with the work -- covering the drains with slabs, removing the rubble, re-laying the road etc. After all, there are houses on the road that haven't been able to use their cars since they don't have access from the road to their gates. At a more serious level, the roads are used by pedestrians including school children and the open drains are an invitation to disaster.

October came, and so did the rains. Thanks to the rubble, the water couldn't flow into the new drains, and our street went under water for over 2 weeks. A couple of days back, practically overnight, the concrete rubble was conveniently spread over the remaining road space that we used to get out of our locality, instead of being carted away. We cannot drive over the chunks of rock and concrete since the vehicle refuses to move; we are practically marooned now. As a last resort, we called up the Chairman of the Maduravoyal Municipality who predictably was in a meeting and promised to call us back. That was the end of it.

We hope, by addressing the issue through this blog, we can at least get this issue across to the people who take 'decisions' on behalf of the tax-paying public. I have videos and photos of the progress of work right from the time it started, through the rains and the current situation.

Hopefully, by sending this blog link to the media, some action will be triggered! Most of the time, those in power get away with criminal and irresponsible conduct because we as citizens refuse to get involved. I am making a start now.













Thanks for listening...
Sundar Mahadevan