Madipakkam locals plan protest to clean damaged stormwater drains

The Madipakkam area comes under Chennai Corporation in 187 and 188 wards and the locals said that the stormwater drainage is not maintained properly. The residents claim that the drainage in Veerasammy street, Ponniamman Koil, Eswaran Koil, Guberar Nagar, Sabari Nagar, and Karthikeyapuram are not being maintained properly and the drainage is left open. They said that in most places, the drain gets blocked and overflows on the streets.

For the last few months, locals said that the neighbourhood has become a source for mosquito breeding due to the open drains.

Following this, several residents’ welfare associations complained to the zonal officer but there was no proper response from him. “As the complain failed to evoke a response, we even filed a complaint in the Madipakkam police station. However, they refused to take the complaint citing that it was a civic issue. Recently, we even filed a complaint with the St Thomas Mount Deputy Commissioner’s office but there was no response even for that,” said RS Geetha from Madipakkam.

The residents demanded that open stormwater drains should be closed with manual openings. RS Geetha said, “We are requesting the officials for the past one year to close the drains but they are not taking any steps to cover it. So soon we will plan a huge protest.”

When contacted, Assistant Engineer, Madipakkam said, “We have planned to close all the drainage with manual openings and soon the work would get started.”