CHENNAI : The Alwarpet Residents Welfare Association, which will be turning a year old this September, has completed one task from its check list. The association, which has around 300 households under its purview, has installed 16 CCTV cameras at various vantage points in three streets.
The cameras, which will be monitored through two television sets, were inaugurated by P Aravindan, Deputy Commissioner of Police, T Nagar and P Govindaraji, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Teynampet on Sunday. Police personnel from Teynampet traffic and law and order divisions, who regularly patrol the area, were also present at the event.
Multiple CCTV cameras were installed at Alwarpet Street-TTK Road junction, TTK Road 2nd Cross Street and Alwarpet 5th Street at a cost of `1.6 lakh, contributed by both residents and association members. “At Cenatoph 1st and 2nd Lanes, many cases of theft have been reported. We live a few streets away. Though no crime has happened in our locality, we wanted to install cameras as a precaution. Only two people from the association can access the camera feeds,” said Dheenadayalan, president of the association.
With a total of 17 core members, they registered themselves formally as an association in September 2017 to tackle the menace of garbage overflow in their locality. A year ago, towering heaps of garbage spilled onto the street, making it impossible for residents of Alwarpet Street to enter their homes. But now, a considerable change can be seen as 90 per cent of the households strictly follow waste segregation at source, said GN Ganesan, secretary of the association. “Conservancy workers visit our street twice a day, once between 9 am-10 am and between 1pm-2 pm. Residents stopped disposing of their garbage anywhere else and stuck to these timings to hand it over to him,” he said.