It has been a month since residents of TVS Colony in Anna Nagar West uploaded pictures of encroachments on both sides of the TVS Colony Main Road on the Chennai Corporation’s website, yet no action has been taken by the civic body.
The civic officials at Zone – 7 (Ambattur) are yet to crack down on roadside eateries and illegal parking on the stretch.
The ‘Sidewalk Encroachments’ section on the civic body’s website allows residents to upload pictures of encroachments in the places maintained or owned by the Corporation.
Residents can post only one picture per complaint on the website. No automatically generated acknowledgement is sent to the complainant by the civic body.
Instead, residents can check the status of their complaint and the action taken towards redressing it by logging their area name and phone number.
“I have been trying to check the status of my complaint for two weeks now. But whenever I try to check the status, it says no records have been found. Interestingly, the total number of complaints registered on the website and the number of complaints addressed remain the same since I registered my complaint a month ago,” said Ramesh, who refused to give his full name.
The problem of encroachments on TVS Colony Main Road is recent, especially after a private school came into existence two years ago.
Initially, the pavement space before the school was encroached upon and used to park vehicles belonging to the parents of the students studying there.
Subsequently, other portions of the footpath were encroached upon by shops and eateries.
Due to such encroachments, people are forced to walk on the road. “We have to walk in the middle of the road because illegal parking is rampant here,” said S. Lakshmi, a resident of Anna Nagar.
Repeated complaints to higher officials in the Corporation have not helped solved the problem.
“We will look into the complaints and take necessary action,” said a Corporation official.
