Since its inauguration in January, the Kannagi Nagar police station in Okkiyam Thoraipakkam Village Panchayat off Rajiv Gandhi Salai has been functioning at a community hall.
For a long time, an outpost of Thoraipakkam police station was functioning in Kannagi Nagar, where there are more than 15,000 tenements of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board. In January, the outpost was upgraded and the Kannagi Nagar police station created.
The new station was carved out of the jurisdiction of Thoraipakkam Police Station and now includes the tenements.
Personnel at Kannagi Nagar police station recalled that the community hall remained unused for a long time because of damage, theft of equipment and furniture and misuse by miscreants. When there was a pressing need to open a police station exclusively for Kannagi Nagar, the community hall was spruced up at a cost of Rs.2 lakh and the police station accommodated.
While residents thought it was a temporary measure, there is no indication of the police station moving to a permanent building. The hall was built by Okkiyam Thoraipakkam Village Panchayat, coming under St. Thomas Mount Panchayat Union, for residents of the tenements to conduct family functions.
P.Narayanan, Sholinganallur Area Committee Member of Communist Party of India (Marxist), said the community hall charged around Rs.3,000 and because of the high rent, considering that families in Kannagi Nagar belonged to the poorest sections, there was poor patronage.
Police sources said that the present arrangement was temporary and that land had been allotted nearby for constructing a permanent building for the police station and the work is expected to start anytime.
