In response to a petition filed by a property owner of Jeeva Nagar, the Mangadu Town Panchayat has said it could take up road laying works in the layout only after a proposed drainage scheme of the Tamil Nadu Water and Drainage Board is implemented.
We consider this an obfuscation, because we are only seeking 'kutcha' roads made up of debris at a height appropriate to the known flood level. This does not require major funding. We intend to pursue this demand, and have already written to the District Collector, Kancheepuram, Mr. Santhosh K. Misra , IAS, and the Commissioner of Town Panchayats, Mr. Gopal, IAS.
We will post the full reply of the Executive Officer, Mangadu Town Panchayat, here shortly. Clearly, the Panchayat has ignored the appeals made in 2007 and earlier by the residents about the recurrent flooding. The appeals were printed in The Hindu, see here. A recent video of the flooding of 2008 is here.
At this point, we wish to express our shock and surprise that the EO has been harassing some residents of Jeeva Nagar on the ground that they had violated their building permission. This is ridiculous because the Mangadu Town Panchayat is yet to remove the stagnating rain-water, and compensate the ten house owners in the approved layout, who were surrounded by a sheet of water for over two months.
The devious and mala fide actions of the Executive Officer have been communicated to the Kancheepuram District Collector and the Commissioner of Town Panchayats.
The families of the residents who have endured the havoc of rain and flooding should be provided the relief amount of Rs.2,000 promised by the DMK Government immediately. The residents could file Right to Information Act applications, if they want to know more about the relief scheme; they should file individual claims for the amount, and if the Panchayat does not provide the money, should file RTI applications seeking to know why they were denied the claim. (Details of an earlier RTI application are available here.)
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