CHENNAI: Amid increasing large-scale complaints of decreasing quality of basic amenities, there are some pockets in the city’s southern suburbs that provide a picture of contrast. Residents in a ward near Tambaram are glad that instead of waiting for the State government, especially their local body, to provide the necessary support for their basic needs and comfort, they have got a substantial portion of it from their former elected representative.
The moment people walk into ward 5 of Sembakkam Municipality, they are greeted by closed-circuit television cameras. Coming under the jurisdiction of Selaiyur police station, this ward, like any other thickly populated residential pocket with a good mix of individual houses and a cluster of apartment complexes was earlier prone to petty offences and property crimes like chain-snatching and house break-ins.
“We were under tremendous pressure to put an end to this. Residents began to become increasingly afraid. That was when many residents’ welfare associations on the city suburbs and the city police started installing CCTV cameras at important locations. We thought of installing it all over the ward,” said Karpagam Suresh, a former councillor of ward 5.
It has been over a year since the ward, like the rest of Chennai has been functioning without a councillor as elections to local bodies have not been conducted. That has not stopped Suresh from going ahead with providing amenities for the comfort of residents in her ward. “We have installed CCTV cameras in 20 locations in the ward and at each spot, there are four cameras.
The best thing about the whole exercise is that residents in the ward have come forward to cooperate. The CCTV cameras are linked to a server that is housed in a local person’s residence,” Suresh, a member of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam said.
They have also gone ahead with extending shelters at the fair price shop to protect waiting card-holders from sun and rain. But topping the list of amenities are shelters at places where Small Bus services halt. “There are bus services through different routes that connect our ward to Madambakkam and Chromepet. Since they are not frequent, we thought of creating a value addition by offering free wi-fi services,” she said. The username and password are displayed at the bus shelters and residents can use them free of cost.