Yet another residents’ association has been formed. This time at Sivaraman Street, Mandaveli, the street opposite the mosque at St. Mary’s Road.
The president of the association J. Velayutham says, “For years, in addition to struggling with common issues like garbage and illegal parking, we have also been facing several problems put forth by the welding, tinkering and spray painting shops located at the end of the street. Most of their work is done in the middle of the road and the paint fumes create health hazards”.
Velayutham says that people didn’t want to rent homes at their street for this reason. Fed up with this, about a year back, a few residents got together and decided that they had to do something. “All this while, we did not know who to contact and how to make a change. We attended a few meetings by NGO Arappor Iyakkam and then slowly convinced all the residents to join in. We now have a Whatsapp group and we keep tabs on what is happening at the street regularly”.
With the help of Mylapore MLA R. Nataraj, 30 year old pipelines were recently changed at the street, says Velayutham. “Street lights and illegal parking issues (seen in the picture) are next. A 30 year old uninhabited house at our street, which is home to more than 20 mongoose, is being used for several illegal acts and as a public toilet. We hope to do something about that too”.
