Residents of north Chennai did this in the streets for the sake of drinking water
Posted on: 07/Jun/2019 9:48:20 AM
The availability and distribution of the drinking water are major issues in the Chennai city now. For demanding their share of water, the poor people of Chennai city are now in the streets. It should be noted that the residents belonging to the 5 localities of north Chennai staged flash protests on Thursday between 8:30 am and 10 am. This had created issues and traffic was brought to halt.
In places such as Kasimedu, Royapuram, Korukkupet there were 4 flash protests and these kept police personnel very busy. In addition to these, in New Washermenpet as many as 200 residents of Poondi Thangammal Street, Bujjammal Street and Avur Muthiah Street gathered on the Surya Narayanan Salai near Kasimedu. These people sat on the middle of the road and created traffic congestion. For about 2 kms, traffic piled and the police diverted the vehicles and sent a team to pacify the crowd. It is important to note that around 100 residents from the nearby Irulappan Street took to street and protested with empty pots for the sake of drinking water that was due on Thursday.
The residents belonging to Veera Raghavan Salai, Ashok Nagar, Chezhian Nagar etc blocked the traffic by protesting on the streets. Police personnel from the nearby police stations were deployed to control the residents. For distributing drinking water immediately to Ezhil Nagar, Korukkupet and Tondiarpet areas, residents belonging to Nethaji Nagar and Tondiarpet went to Patel Nagar’s TN Water Supply and Drainage Board OR TWAD office and protested.
Every day, TWAD board supplies drinking water to Tondiarpet, Vinobha Nagar, Korrukupet etc by means of 20 water tankers. In this water scarcity scenario, the number of trips has come down. It was revealed by a water tanker driver that the residents stopped tankers and demanded the distribution of water and that was why drinking water was not distributed on Thursday. It must be noted that in Red Hills in Chennai, residents of Mathura Mettupalayam targeted a private firm that supplies bubble top cans. The residents were angry that the groundwater level has gone down ever since the private firm began its operations in 2018.
