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Tamil Nadu
PROTEST: Residents of TNSCB tenements in Semmanchery blocking Rajiv Gandhi Salai on Friday. — Photo: M. Karunakaran TAMBARAM: Traffic came to a grinding halt on Rajiv Gandhi Salai on Friday morning for about two hours following a protest by residents of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board tenements in Semmanchery. The residents alleged that water supplied to the tenements was far below their actual requirements and even the meagre quantity supplied to them was contaminated. Even if safe and protected water reached the storage reservoirs or roadside plastic tanks, the “water mafia” smuggled water. Residents said that under such circumstances, they were forced to buy water from outside at the rate of Rs.4 a pot. Enquiries with officials and engineers of the TNSCB always met with hostile response, they alleged. Supported by local functionaries of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, a few hundred residents, including women, assembled on the road and squatted on its entire length, thereby preventing the flow of traffic towards both Chennai and Siruseri . When police officials tried to pacify them, they refused to disperse and said they would move only when senior officials of the TNSCB came to the spot. A couple of engineers came to the spot a little later and assured them that their grievances would be looked into. They promised that within a week, they would start getting adequate, safe and protected water supply. After that, the residents dispersed from the spot. It took a long time for normal flow of traffic to be restored as there was an enormous pile-up of vehicles in both directions stretching nearly two km. Later, TNSCB engineers dismissed the charges, saying that the protest was instigated by a small section of disgruntled elements. The quality of water supplied to the 6,764 slum board tenements built to rehabilitate those families whose houses were lost in the tsunami in 2004 was good. They supplied 5 lakh litres of water pumped from wells in the nearby Ottiyambakkam area every day to the tenements. In addition, two lakh litres of water was supplied through water tankers. They had also paid Rs.1 crore as deposit to the State government for supplying an additional 5 lakh litres a day to the tenements from the Veeranam scheme and this was expected to be commissioned in a month. The Board was always responsive to grievances from residents of the tenements in Semmanchery and they made sure that adequate quantity of safe and protected water reached them on time every day.
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