Post Vardah, residents now have to ‘deal’ with officials

In many areas, where the power supply situation was back to normal, money was allegedly paid to government staff and in areas where the damage was severe, the residents are now pooling in money to allegedly grease the palms of officials. “On the road that leads to my colony, four electric poles were damaged. Now Tangedco staff are demanding Rs 5,000 to replace each pole.  They told us that if we failed to pay up they would not put up the new poles. Due to this demand, power was not restored to my colony,” Sailesh, a resident of Perumal Agaram, Thiruverkadu, told DTNext. “Even senior officials including local assistant engineers demand to be taken care of,” he claimed. In Chitlapakkam, Tangedco officials demanded Rs 10,000 to erect a single electric pole.  

“A junior engineer, linemen and other staff were seen demanding Rs 10,000 to restore power to the neighbourhood,” Sunil Jayaraman, a local resident posted on his Facebook account. Residents in many areas have paid money to get the power restored. “We paid money to the electricity board staff to re-erect the damaged poles,” V Govindasamy, president of Federation of Residents’ Associations of Mugalivakkam and Manapakkam, said. In Maduravoyal, the municipal workers refused to remove tree branches and green debris in areas where people refused to pay a bribe. 

“In the same street, you could see a few areas where waste is removed and other areas where it is not,” P Varadharajan, president of Maduravoyal Residents’ Welfare Association said. There is currently no mechanism to bring about some relief to residents from the men working in ground zero. When contacted, a senior official attached to Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption said that the agency does not receive complaints regarding such cases. 

“Tangedco vigilance is the agency responsible to monitor such cases,” the official added. The Electricity Board Vigilance Wing, which is supposed to handle corruption cases involving Tangedco staff, remains without a head for several months. Both the posts of DGP and IG remain vacant, according to lower level officials in the department.