Helplines fail Chennai residents

The services set up by various civic agencies in the city have failed to live up to their purpose in times of emergency

November 19, 2014 02:29 am | Updated November 27, 2021 06:56 pm IST - CHENNAI:

During the recent bout of rains, residents in the city faced hardships on several civic fronts — from potholed roads, flooding and power disruption to sewage mixing with drinking water. But they were left without any support. Local authorities remained out of bounds to the common man, say civic welfare organisations in the city -- Photo: M. Karunakaran

During the recent bout of rains, residents in the city faced hardships on several civic fronts — from potholed roads, flooding and power disruption to sewage mixing with drinking water. But they were left without any support. Local authorities remained out of bounds to the common man, say civic welfare organisations in the city -- Photo: M. Karunakaran

When citizens face civic issues, the least they should be able to do is turn to the State for help.

It is in recognition of this need the government has set up helplines serviced by various civic agencies. In Chennai, however, more often than not, these helplines have failed to serve their purpose.

During the recent bout of rains, residents in the city faced hardships on several civic fronts — from potholed roads, flooding and power disruption to sewage mixing with drinking water.

But they were left without any support. Local authorities remained out of bounds to the common man, say civic welfare organisations in the city.

R. Padma, a resident of Anna Nagar West, who made a complaint regarding streetlights to the Corporation helpline (1913), received a message that said the problem had been rectified even before the work had even begun.

V.S. Sundar, a resident of Senthil Nagar in Kolathur, says there is neglect by the local authorities in preventing stagnation of rainwater on the roads and the park in his area.

Having found the Corporation helpline futile, he sent a message to the Corporation commissioner. But local officials never bothered to visit the locality, he says.

This, despite the Commissioner sending him a message saying the regional divisional commissioner had been directed to take steps to rectify the problem.

Lakshmi Kanthan, a resident of Sarathy Nagar, Velachery, says when he complained of water stagnation on the roads during the heavy rains last Thursday, a local Corporation official said the problem was due to sewage overflow, and Metrowater officials would have to rectify it.

But no official or representative from any civic agency has visited the spot, he says.

It’s the same story with the Tangedco helpline (1912).

Ganesan, who works in an office located on West Cott Road in Royapettah, says, recently, after a transformer burst, there was no response from Tangedco for a long time. Power supply resumed only a day later.

A senior official of Tangedco says, normally, the computerised call centre receives 6,000 calls a day, in addition to the calls received at the 60 fuse-off call offices.

A majority of these calls pertain to scheduled power disruption for maintenance work, he says. Tangedco’s monsoon preparedness helped to minimise power outages in the city during the recent spells of heavy rains, the official says.

An oft-repeated complaint, however, is that the helpline is either engaged or the calls do not go through.

“The other day, I kept trying the Tangedco helpline for nearly half-an-hour, to find out about an unscheduled power cut, but the call did not go through,” says Kamala, a resident of T. Nagar.

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