Awareness meeting for house owners

Chennai: 11.07.10. For City: Deputy Commissioner of Police with Residence owners meeting at Thoraipakkam, Rajiv Gandhi Salai, OMR. Photo: M_Karunakaran

An awareness meeting for house owners in and around Neelankarai, Thoraipakkam and Palavakkam was convened by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Adyar) N.K. Senthamarai Kannan on Sunday morning.

This comes in the wake of the murder of an engineering student in Palavakkam on July 5 following a rift between two student groups from different engineering colleges in the outskirts of the city.

Over 100 house owners and police personnel attended the meeting held at a private college in Thoraipakkam.

Speaking to

The Hindu after the two-hour meeting, Mr. Kannan said the attendees were people who rented out their house mainly to college students. “In most cases, the owners don't have enough knowledge about their tenants and are even unaware of how many members are residing in their house which is rented out,” he said.

The house owners were asked to stipulate strict conditions for college students regarding the number of people residing in the house and for bringing in visitors. Police officials advised them to insist on seeing an identity proof of their prospective tenants and also complete necessary legal formalities before renting the house. “If need be, they can do a background check on their potential tenants and even approach the police station concerned for assistance,” the Deputy Commissioner added.