A group of people sat shivering on a narrow corridor near the playground in Velayan Chettiar Higher Secondary School, Tiruvottiyur, clearly in need of blankets and good clothes, on Saturday.
Residents of different localities of Tiruvottiyur including Kargil Nagar, Rajaji Nagar and Radha Krishnan Nagar, are at currently a relief camp in North Chennai.
The camp, set up at a school, is packed with over a thousand people.
“We encounter many problems at relief camps. Initially, they kept many of us at wedding halls in the locality. But as marriages have been scheduled, they shifted us to this school,” an inhabitant of the relief camp says.
Though food is being provided on time, most of these residents are unhappy that they have not been provided with blankets and medicines.
“Not many rooms are open. Hence, many of them, including children and senior citizens, have been forced to sleep out on corridors, shivering in the cold,” said S. Dhanalakshmi, a resident of Rajaji Nagar.
Besides this, mosquitoes are a major problem at these camps.
“We are frightened that the children and the elderly will be infected with dengue. The government needs to carry out fogging operations here. We are also in need of a doctor who can check on the sick; and also, we will be able to protect ourselves from catching any illness if we are provided with nila vembu kudineer ,” said P. Anjala, a resident of Kargil Nagar.
Water is a big issue at the relief camp.
“They told us that there is only a little water and we have to use it carefully,” said A. Rajan. Many residents at the camp in Victory Matriculation School in Village Street, complained that they were put up in cramped spaces.
