Civic issues, many a time, are best addressed when people join hands. Having realised this, residents of Robertson Street, near St. John’s School in Mandaveli, have revived the defunct association.
Started as Youngsters Welfare Association in 1982, residents have renamed it Robertson Welfare Association, after their street name. “We have been inactive for close to three years and have been thinking about making a comeback as the number of issues plaguing us has only been increasing,” says V. Padmanabha, a resident of the area for more than four decades.
Old-time residents of the street are on a membership drive to increase the association’s strength. There are nearly 160 houses on the street and the Association currently has about 30 active members.
Last week, they sent a representation to the CM’s cell listing out their woes.
Their biggest grievance is about the state of the road. For nearly 10 years, the road has not been black-topped, say residents.
“It is full of potholes and every time it rains, stagnant rainwater makes it a breeding ground for mosquitoes,” says Padmanabha.
Parents are afraid of letting their children play on the street as the traffic is mind-numbingly chaotic during the peak hours. “So wide and serene was the street that we used to play cricket there. But I cannot cannot allow my children anymore,” says M. Arumugam, a businessman.
The street is a short-cut for motorists coming from R. K. Mutt Road to St. John’s School, making it unsafe to walk on the road. Residents allege that illegal construction has narrowed the width of the street.
Navarose Prasad, who came to the area as a young bride, says residents were a close-knit group and celebrated events like Independence Day and festivals every year. “Today, with haphazard parking and encroachments, it hardly looks like a street,” she says.
An increasing number of thefts and voltage fluctuation are other concerns.
“We are planning to install CCTV cameras to prevent such incidents. We are also requesting the police to have a police beat near the temple that we maintain,” says Arumugam.
