Children’s playground turns into a dump yard

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on July 21, 2011:

Pics courtesy: P Anand Kumar

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/children%E2%80%99s-playground-turns-into-a-dump-yard/296150.html

CHENNAI: The 2.5-acre-plot, which was planned under the area layout as a children park and playfield by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) while promoting residential plots at MMDA-Mathur in the 1990s, has now become an open dumping ground for the local body.

Despite numerous pleas to K Elumalai (DMK), the Mathur Village Panchayat president, and even to the Tiruvallur District Collector for the past several years, no solution is in sight yet, angry residents told City Express.

Sandwiched between Madhavaram Municipality and Manali Municipality, Mathur Village Panchayat is one of the largest village panchayats in terms of its voters. The village panchayat alone has about 15,000 voters and more than 35,000 people live there.

In 1992, when the TNHB sold hundreds of plots within the village panchayat limits under different categories, the 2.5-acre site, located in the middle of a residential area, was earmarked as a children’s park and playfield.The particular patch of land was later handed over to the local body (village panchayat) for developing it as a park and playfield for children. For their part, the local residents who have migrated to the area after constructing houses on the plots allotted to them in the mid-90s have also started demanding that the village panchayat develop the area, as the whole locality lacked a proper lung spot where people could spend some quality time.To the local residents’ dismay, the village panchayat, instead of developing it as a public utility, started dumping garbage collected from different parts of Mathur at the site, showing scant regard to the TNHB instruction and the people’s wish.

“Most of the people, who have migrated here from different parts of Chennai city, had thought of having a peaceful life, but the local body is playing the role of villain in everybody’s life by creating severe health hazards,” said B Thirugnanam, president of TNHB Colony Residents Consumer Protection Awareness Welfare Association.

When contacted, officials of the village panchayat first feigned ignorance about the prevalence of garbage dumping there. Later, they changed their stand and said that they needed more funds to develop it and hence, the delay.However, residents said that several corporate houses located in Manali and the suburbs and service-oriented clubs like Rotary and Lions were ready to sponsor the project, but the village panchayat was blocking it.