Residents fight for basic amenities in Chennai

Chennai, Nov 18: Demanding basic amenities, residents of Kannagi Nagar in Okkiyam - Thoraipakkam last week sent thousands of postcards to the State government demanding improvement of basic amenities in the locality. They had been relocated from slums to Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) tenements but lacked safe drinking water, adequate public transport and child care facilities.
The protest is a sign of the angst of those who have been resettled in houses provided by the TNSCB but without infrastructure required to support a sizeable population. The local body has not provided adequate civic services such as garbage clearance and drinking water supply.

In its policy note for 2008 - 09, the TNSCB said that it would undertake a massive construction programme to make Chennai 'slum-free by 2013'. The project is to be taken up as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission under the 'basic services for urban poor' component. Semmenchery, Perumbakkam and Okkiyam - Thoraipakkam in the south and Tiruvottiyur in the north are some of the locations where new tenements are to be built.

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