CHENNAI: Complaints to the city Corporation via the toll-free number 1913 have been the least from the Tiruvottriyur, Manali and Sholinganallur zones, according to Corporation data from January 1 to May 22. Before it may be claimed as an indication of better administration in these zones, residents said it could be, in fact, due to the lack of awareness of available avenues to register complaints in the regions.
While the lack of complaints in Manali may be attributed to its low population, complaints from the Tiruvottriyur and Sholinganallur zones, with a substantial population in both, have also been low. All three zones fall under the extended area of the Corporation.
A large part of Tiruvottriyur’s population reside in three Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) tenements in Thalankuppam, Tsunami Quarters and Village Street. The city Corporation received merely 829 complaints from here during the said period.
In the Sholinganallur zone, by the Corporation’s assessment, the most densely populated area is Okkiyam Thoraipakkam under which resettlement colonies such as Kannagi Nagar and Semmencherry, that house around 1.5 lakh residents, fall. The Corporation received 715 complaints in total from this zone.
The maximum number of complaints received were from Adyar (3,904), Kodambakkam (3,480), Teynampet (3,000), Anna Nagar (2,899) and Royapuram (3,849) zones.
Arappor Iyakkam convener Jayaram Venkatesan said when a complaint is filed officially, a due follow-up process usually followed which would hold staff at the local-level accountable. They would, instead, ask residents to contact them directly through WhatsApp, he added. The city Corporation also received 190 complaints regarding stormwater drains, 160 over bus route roads, two regarding bridges and seven regarding revenue.
Sam Ponraj, a city resident, who regularly raises complaints with the civic body, said that he had been asked by local officers to contact them directly, instead of raising a complaint officially. “They ask me to send details through WhatsApp directly. As long as it gets the work done, we are satisfied as residents,” he said.
Asked if she knew of avenues to raise complaints with the Corporation, Kalavathi K from Semmenchery said that she did not know what the toll-free number was.