Madipakkam is anything but a model panchayat

An example of poor urban planning and little development: residents

STINKING: Garbage clearance a major issue in Madipakkam panchayat.

Until a few decades ago, Madipakkam was among the locations in the southern suburbs of Chennai that were projected as ideal places for people to settle outside the city limits. All that has changed today with Madipakkam, its residents complain, being the perfect example of poor urban planning, little development and complete failure in providing and maintaining basic amenities.

“Madipakkam has nothing to boast of. Some of the worst facilities in this part of Chennai can be spotted here. Roads in bad shape, garbage dumped at almost every street corner, crumbling basic infrastructure, erratic water supply and absence of green spaces have made the quality of life poor to its residents,” said S. Harikrishnan, a resident of Sathsangam Street. He is also the joint secretary of the South Chennai unit of the Democratic Youth Federation of India.

Be it meetings with elected representatives or in public forums, residents seldom miss an opportunity to express their concern and criticise the state of affairs in the village panchayat.

Even during a public consultation held recently in Tambaram on the creation of the proposed South Chennai Corporation, residents wanted the State government to upgrade the local body as a municipality or at least a town panchayat at the earliest and merge it with the proposed civic body.

They said that with a population of over 40,000 and an annual income of about Rs.1 crore, Madipakkam ought to be upgraded from a village panchayat.

The place continuing as a rural local body, politicians and elected representatives have greater control in the day-to-day affairs and the government staff have little to contribute positively. Once it was upgraded as an urban local body, there would at least be increased monitoring from the State government machinery, residents said.

Residents pointed out to the heaps of garbage accumulated in street corners, including arterial roads such as Medavakkam Main Road and Madipakkam-Velachery Link Road and also near public places, bus stops and schools. The proliferation of commercial establishments and apartment complexes resulting in the manifold output of garbage had made it impossible for the panchayat staff to put in place effective measures to combat the menace. Hence, residents were left with no other option than organising workers by shelling out money from their pockets to keep their streets clean.

Unlike other pockets in the southern suburbs, Madipakkam’s problems on the sewage front are far more. Open sewers draining into lakes and smaller waterbodies and emptying into vacant spots caused severe problems to residents.

They said the Madipakkam village panchayat authorities’ biggest failure was evident from the poor state of roads. Some of the stretches are not motorable. Activists also pointed out that Madipakkam had only one middle school and that it was time to upgrade it as at least a high school. The local body also lacked parks, markets and playgrounds.

Courtesy The Hindu Feb 07, 2009