CHENNAI: From civic infrastructure, health and electricity to child care, education, ration and water resources, there are a dozen line departments in Perumbakkam Slum Boards. However, due to lack of a centralised grievance redressal mechanism for complaints and a coordination committee, residents run from pillar to post to get access to basic amenities.
As per official records, the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) gets about a hundred complaints on various issues every day. Some are written complaints while the majority remain oral. Due to the presence of various line departments and lack of coordination for grievance redressal, residents said, the officials either pass the buck among different departments and complaints go unheard. “When the school compound walls were broken and toilets were in bad shape, we raised a complaint with TNSCB. They told us to share it with the school principal, who in turn told us to go back to TNSCB. They took our complaints but it has been pushed under the carpet,” said Sarala G*, a resident, whose son studies in class 10.
Though the TNSCB has set up an office for grievance redressal in block 9, residents said that it was only for dysfunctional escalators or lack of water supply. “Even in this office, they allow us to file the complaints but it is not attended to or solved,” added Sarala. Apart from this, many senior citizens and widows have faced problems in transferring bank accounts and getting pension.
Venkatesan R*, another resident, said, running pillar to post to the TNSCB office and city District Collectorate was a taxing experience. “As most residents here are not educated, they do not know how to transfer bank accounts from the home branch and withdraw money,” he said, adding that there has to be a regular grievance meeting.
The United Nations guidelines for evictions suggests that competent state authority, even after evictions, must continue to monitor and aid residents with legal and expert assistance for the welfare of evicted people. However, here, residents are left in the lurch with little to no help, claim the evicted families.
To ensure that all the line departments work as a cooperative system and are kept aware of the issues, the then Principal Secretary and Corporation Commissioner in 2015 chaired a joint review meeting for Kannagi Nagar tenements. In the meeting, officials from various departments, including CMWSSB, TNSCB, Chennai Corporation, MTC, Women Development Corporation, and NGOs participated. However, in recent times, no such meetings have been conducted nor a social impact assessment has been done.
Social activist Vanessa Peter of Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities said that there must be local-level coordination among various line departments for schemes and welfare to reach people. “The complaints vary in nature and a coordination committee at the local level should be convened every month with the participation of residents for grievance redressal,” she said,
When Express contacted TNSCB, the officials said that every time residents filed a complaint, if it was under their jurisdiction, it was attended to. “For other departments, we pass the complaints to them. Assistant engineers in the tenements are always reachable,” said a TNSCB official. (* Names changed on request)