One morning, in late March, Mylapore MLA, Dha. Velu responded to a call from Mandavelipakkam’s civic-minded residents. ‘Come and walk with us’, they had suggested.
A walk to understand some serious, local civic issues.
Some 25 residents joined the MLA. It served as a nice exercise; but nobody could escape that signal smell that pervades this zone – the stink of cattle dung and urine, baking in the summer heat.
13th Trust Cross – cattle zone
2nd Trust Cross junction – cattle parking area
7th Trust Cross – pavement home for cattle.
Just three of many open-air cattle zones all around.
Said Saroj Satyanarayanan, a resident who led the walk-around,”The cattle problem is the biggest of many other problems we face here.”
Saroj and her neighbours may have to live with the cattle problem which has been part of this colony for ages unless the MLA, the councillor and Chennai Corporation takes it up seriously.
Says Dha Velu, “The cattle issue is a big one and we are doing our best to address it. Only residents where cattle are raised are objecting to this. Tying them to corners seems okay but cattle roaming the streets cause accidents. I will find a solution.”
There are enough ‘pro-cattle’ people here who will not budge.
Said one cattle-manager,”Cattle have been reared here even before people came to live here. We must be accommodated and many people want fresh milk from us.”
Many residents are not even bothered that cattle are tied to their walls or reared on their pavements.
Chennai Corporation seems to have made soft efforts to locate a space to raise a common cattle shed in this zone. Their choice in open land near the MRTS station in Mandaveli did not get the nod.
Local area councillor Amirda Varshini has made some noises too. The MLA promises follow-up once the current TN Assembly session is over.
OTHER CIVIC ISSUES IN THIS ZONE
– Drinking water agents use local streets to park vans, stock water cans and operate their business.
– Auto workshops and others have encroached on spaces on 1st Trust Main Road; junk and waste is dumped here.
– Maids and others continue to dump kitchen and other waste around dumpsters outside the gate of the GCC park on Lazarus Church Road.
I think the cattle manager should tie the cattle in his house and not in streets. the public in chennai really lack civic sense.