TIRUCHY: The Wall of Happiness (WoH), a shelf for placing clothes and blankets for the needy, near K Abishekapuram zonal office often receives so many clothes in good condition. Though originally meant for the benefit of the needy, it's not always needy who use the clothes placed inside. Complaints have continually arisen that the real beneficiaries of the scheme are traders, which actually defeats the actual intention of the scheme, which was launched in 2017.
Geetha Murugan, a resident of Thennur, confirms as much. "I had a suspicion that merchants were collecting clothes from this facility, as I saw a few people collecting clothes kept in bundles. I was not able to talk with them, but since they took away a large number of clothes, I am quite sure they are taking it for some other purpose.
This is of particular concern since I had placed a few blankets in the facility, hoping it would benefit some of the street dwellers. Those were new blankets, and it is likely that they were sold by the traders. Besides the blankets, I had also donated a few old clothes, but if they're being resold in the market, how can it be a charitable initiative?" she asks.
Since no record is kept of the donations and takeaways from the facility, it is hard to monitor who actually uses these clothes. Some sources have also confirmed that the merchants are hand-in-glove with ground-level corporation workers, who keep clothes in bundles for them to pick up. When TNIE raised this issue, senior officials said that they were aware of the issue and that steps would be taken to curb them.
"It was established for the needy and not for recyclers or other merchants. Thus, we would take action against those collecting huge quantities of clothes from that facility. Apart from this, there are also plans to demolish the WoH in Srirangam as it is not getting any donations, and it is also at the entrance of the bus stand planned there," a senior official said.