With a number of housing board apartments as well as smaller tenements in Ward 117, Councillor P. Arumugam’s focus on establishing amenities at M.K. Radha Nagar, Nakkeeran Nagar, Thomas Road and the slums in South Boag Road has been a welcome move, said a few residents there.
“In the last four years, the Corporation has built a dispensary, gym, two Amma Unavagams and a public toilet in the ward. A community hall in particular which we built at Giriappa Road was well appreciated since there are many low-income families here who were struggling to find space to hold meetings and family functions,” Mr. Arumugam said. An ICDS centre in the ward too has been spruced up and has been equipped with toys and equipment for children,” said the councillor, who has been vocal about the issues in the ward at Corporation council meetings.
Residents in many areas in the ward, which were badly damaged in the recent floods, however, have said that the roads need to be re-laid. P. Uma, a resident of Dr. Thomas Road, said that many of the narrow lanes leading towards the housing board apartment blocks were full of potholes.
“There is also a constant complaint about how garbage is indiscriminately dumped here by the residents. If the roads are made neater and more bins kept at vantage points in the locality, we feel that the issue can be addressed,” she said. Many residents like her from the housing board tenements in the ward there have come together to form a residents’ association.
While the major slums in the ward were dotted with hutments, as many as 886 families have been relocated to Thoraipakkam in the last few years.
The wait for the residents of M.K. Radha Nagar has, however, been a long one, said S. Rosalyn, a resident there, who explained that they were yet to get housing board flats allotted to them after 40 years.
“There are more than 80 houses here and we lack basic facilities such as proper water connections. The mixing of sewage with drinking water is a regular occurrence and there is only one public bathroom here which all of us are using,” said another resident.
Mr. Arumugam, however, said that arrangements were being made for the allotment of housing board apartments for those who were still in hutments in the ward. “At Nakkeeran Nagar and Thiru Vi Ka road, we have also taken cognisance of the water problem and are in the process of laying a new drinking water pipeline,” he said.
