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Corporation yet to clear trees in north Chennai
Though the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) claims to have cleared most of the uprooted trees and fallen branches in south Chennai, it is an entirely different story in north Chennai.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
Traffic bottlenecks at the junction of Perambur Barracks road and Avadana Papier road in Pursuwalkam has become frequent as a huge uprooted tree is yet to be removed from the roadside. Though the branches have been cut, they remain on the road and pavement adding to the woes of pedestrians and two-wheeler riders.
“We cut the branches of the uprooted tree as the corporation staff failed to do so despite us informing them,” said auto driver Anbu. Another auto driver J Manimozhian said, “The corporation staff are now demanding money to remove the debris, which blocks the approach to Avadan papier road. The presence of a corporation school adds to the gridlock during the mornings and evenings when students cross the road to reach a bus stop at this junction.”
Further down the same road at Choolai, a 150-yearold tree at Raghavendra park was brought down by strong winds. The tree, which also brought down a portion of the compound wall, is yet to be removed. “We have yet to see corporation staff come to remove the tree. The fallen tree still blocks a part of the road which will have free flow of traffic if there were no impediments,” said J Kannan, an insurance investigator.
The GCC had announced that uprooted trees and branches would be picked up from 54 strategic locations and will be transported to Kodungaiyur and Perungudi dump yards where they would be recycled. But that initiative has met with a moderate response. Till date, the local body has operated 58 medical camps, organised another 176 relief camps, removed 12,335 trees using 743 lorries and 415 earth movers.
Moreover, it has cleared stagnated water from 16 subways and another 267 places and replaced 2,329 street lamps in its extended 426 square km area. A total of 19,411 GCC staff and another 3,009 from the districts took part in the operations, according to the GCC website.
Volunteers do their part to clean up the city
Volunteers spent their weekend at Corporation-run schools, community centres and parks conducting clean-up drives, to ensure that the city bounces back to normalcy at the earliest.
Hitesh, Project Lead at Bhumi, a city-based NGO, said the focus was on community centres and schools, to make sure classes restarted soon. “The cyclone had left behind a lot of debris. Our volunteers started cleaning the schools and playgrounds first. At the Government School in Perambur, we cleared garbage and tree branches. The Corporation provided brooms and garbage bags, as 23 volunteers cleared up the school,” said the 20-year-old. The situation was similar at the Community Centre at Doss Nagar in Vyasarpadi.
The community centre has volunteers conducting tuition sessions for children from impoverished backgrounds. “Since the centre was new, it suffered minor damage but there were a lot of branches. We also had to remove the stagnated water. Seeing that we were short of volunteers, the local children also joined us. Following the centre, we cleaned up the street, placed two garbage bins and created awareness among the residents on how to use them,” said Karl Marx, a community volunteer.
Government schools in Adyar and Nanganallur as well as parks in Valluvar Kottam and Madhavaram saw volunteers setting the place right. Hitesh added that more such initiatives have been planned. A few months ago, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) had called for volunteers in case of a disaster. However, this time, the work required more machines than manpower, an official said.
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