Nearly 130 families in Durga Nagar near Tambaram are caught in a jurisdictional dispute between two local bodies. Residents say both the Tiruneermalai Town Panchayat and the Tambaram Municipality are refusing to acknowledge their locality as part of the respective local bodies. The intervention of the Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply, especially its Directorate of Town Panchayats, is awaited to settle this ‘border row’ which has been on for nearly 15 years now.
There are nearly 750 houses, mostly apartments, in five phases of Tamil Nadu Housing Board in Tambaram Sanatorium. Except for a few which come under the jurisdiction of the Tambaram Municipality, the rest come under that of Tiruneermalai Town Panchayat.
However, residents of 130 houses in the fifth phase, between Fourth and Seventh Cross Street, are in the particularly difficult situation of being in a ‘no-man’s land’ as far as provision of amenities is concerned.
The residents of the locality had cast votes for a councillor for the Tiruneermalai Town Panchayat. Workers hired by the town panchayat rather than salaried staff clear garbage from the neighbourhood. The Tambaram Municipality also refuses to provide any relief. Whether it is the submission of grievances or applications for documents or payment of property tax, both local bodies maintain that the four streets do not come under their jurisdiction.
The situation has become so bad that expectant mothers are admitted to hospitals outside the jurisdiction of both the Tambaram Municipality and the Tiruneermalai Town Panchayat so that obtaining birth certificates for the newborns would be easier. However, getting a death certificate is a ponderous process, said residents, as both local bodies insist that Durga Nagar does not come under their jurisdiction.
“The problems faced by a handful of families living in four streets in Durga Nagar is a result of gross negligence and indifference on the part of the State government agencies,” fumed an angry K.K.Kabilan, advocate.
Residents said while one half of the Durga Nagar main road had a bitumen-topped surface, the other half was only a metal road with stones laid over a sheet of mud and had remained like that for 15 years. V. Ramalingam, councillor of Ward No. 12 of the town panchayat, said it was unfair on the part of the State government to treat a small section of its people as ‘step-children.’
The issue has been presented before various levels of the State government, including the Chief Minister’s Cell and the Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply.
All that is required is affirmative action on the part of the State government to declare 130 houses on the four streets an integral part of the town panchayat to permanently dispel doubts, clear the air of suspicion and solve the problems of a small group of residents forever.
