CHENNAI: Perambur assembly constituency, covering the blue-collar workers’ belt of Chennai, has not benefitted from major infrastructure projects in a long time. If one were to list out the significant projects undertaken in the constituency, a flyover near Perambur railway station and new roads are the only ones that come to mind.
This, despite popular leaders of DMK, AIADMK and CPM representing the constituency, which includes Kodungaiyur, Perambur, Vysarpadi, Elango Nagar and Ayanavaram, for the last five decades. The area, inhabited by a large number of railway employees, is plagued by several civic issues -- traffic congestion, contamination of drinking water and lack of transport connectivity. Which of these will reflect in the poll outcome is to be seen.
The perennial problem for many is the Kodungaiyur dump yard. Locals have been demanding, for years, to shift the garbage disposal facility that has been allegedly contaminating their water and air. “For last 20 years, in every major elections, leaders promised they would shift the dumping yard. It never happens,” says K Saravanan of Union Carbide Colony in Kodungaiyur.
“When fires break out at the yard, which happens now and then, we struggle to breathe,” says Saravanan. A majority of residential habitations have roads of 10 by 20 feet width, impeding the replacement of damaged sewage and water pipelines. As a result, complaints regarding supply of contaminated drinking water remain unaddressed.
Expansion of population and lack of commensurate transportation facilities is another hurdle to development of Perambur constituency. “Bus services between Perambur and Madhvaram have been reduced in the last few years,” says K Ganesan of Elango Nagar. “The city has expanded northwards, beyond Kolathur and Redhills, but no new buses have been introduced. Share autos have taken advantage of this situation. But there are so many of them that roads are choked, especially the Perambur highway and Papermills road,” says Ganesan.
CPM votebank to play crucial role
Of the 11 Assembly elections conducted since 1971, DMK and its allies won from Perambur seven times while AIADMK and its partners won four times. In the bypolls, given the fact that DMK has allied with CPM which has significant vote share in the constituency, electoral success may favour the Dravidian major which lost the last elections by only 519 votes to AIADMK.
P Vetrivel who resigned his MLA post in 2015 to facilitate former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to become a MLA from RK Nagar after she was acquitted in disproportionate assets case contested in Perambur in 2016 Assembly elections on an AIADMK ticket. He got 79,974 votes while the DMK candidate N R Dhanapalan received 79,455 votes. Later, he was disqualified as an MLA