School wall collapsed and a student injured

M.Sowmiya

Chennai, 12 Nov 2015: Bhavani a 12 year old school girl injured in the wall collapse near Padi kuppam and is been admitted to a nearby hospital.

Schoolgirl was found injured after the fall of wall constructed nearly three decades ago which collapsed inside their campus in Padi kuppam on Monday afternoon.

The wall collapsed at Amutha Girls Higher Secondary School at Padi Kuppam around 10.30 am. According to the school watchman, Senthil, when the accident took place there was twostudents  Bhavani and Keerthana  were playing with their classmates inside the campus, and these kids were about to return from the school as it was declared as holiday due to rain.

While the girls are about to cross the wall, the wall accidently fell on Bhavani and she was injured was admitted to a nearby hospital. As soon as the wall collapsed, other students alerted the watchman, he took the immediate step and saved the kids. After 1 day of treatment, Bhavani has been returned to her with minor stiches in her leg. She says it was her mistake for not leaving the school campus even after knowing it was a holiday.

Some portions of the school are unsafe and the school has been running for nearly 30 years says Kala a nearby resident. 

Rainy Food Drive reaches more than 10 areas

M.Sowmiya

Chennai, 12 Oct 2015: Group of people joins together and distributes food which includes 547 food packets and 100+ breads biscuits and water bottles were distributed for lunch and dinner to flood rescued people and homeless in Puliyanthope.

 A small initiative to avoid hunger to those who are in difficulty to purchase food and also to the avoid wasting foods. They distribute the extra food which can serve more than 5 tummies. The volunteers or the respective person who are willing to collect will be get in touch with people who offer food and also they make sure the collected food is in good condition before they collect.

Since the basic idea is to serve home cooked meals every week, some simple dish is made at homes. The served food contains multi vegetable sambar rice, vegetable rice, variety rice, biscuits (for the children), fruits, idlis and dosais. This is packed in an easy to give containers (aluminum foil, plastic containers, plantain leaves).

The food is assembled in the locality of any spot and a small team takes this in a car, auto, bike or walk and is distributed to the homeless. The core team drives in and around the streets to makes sure it reaches only the needy and the homeless. It pretty much takes about an hour or so if the destination and the target audience are clear.

The areas where the food drive covers is AnnaNagar, T Nagar, Egmore, Saidapet, Royapet, Mylapore, Nanganallur, Velachery, OMR, Kolathur, Porur, Tambaram,  Chromepet and Pallavaram.

Train travelers irked by constricted passageway

Chennai, 20 February 2015 :Vehicles illegally parked at the main entrance of the Ambattur Railway Station leave walkers with little space to move about.  Concentration of petty shops at the entrance leave commuters with a narrow space beneath an FOB to reach the facility.

Those trespassing into railway property, including stations, are to be fined Rs. 250 under the Indian Railways Act 1989. But, the Ambattur railway station seems to be an exception to this rule.

Illegal parking and encroachment by petty shop owners at the entrance have gone unchecked for years. So serious is the problem that commuters are forced to take the narrow space beneath the foot over bridge (FOB) to reach the station daily.

An inadequate number of Railway Protection Force personnel at the station makes it convenient for petty shop owners to park their vehicles at the entrance of the railway station leaving no space for commuters to enter or exit.

Women and senior citizens are the most affected as they have to risk negotiating the narrow space near the FOB at the Bazzar Road. At the railway station, suburban trains do around 240 trips daily.

With surging crowds during morning and evening hours, commuters especially those who come from the Bazzar Road side find it difficult to enter or exit the station through the narrow space available. Repeated complaints to the local unit of the RPF have proved futile.

“Local traders are strong in the neighbourhood. Any attempt by our men to remove the illegal parking has always been unsuccessful mainly due to lack of sufficient personnel at the railway station,” said an RPF officer.

Every day, on an average, at least 50,000 commuters use the railway station to reach the city. It is a convenient transport hub as the nearest bus terminus from the station is at least five km away. Also, many prefer taking the train to travelling by the congested and accident prone CTH Road to reach the city.

“Suburban trains are the cheapest and fastest mode of transport to reach the city. But, facilities at the stations should also be improved for comfortable travelling,” said Gunaseelan, a commuter.

Rain reveled the ugly condition of roads

M.Sowmiya

Chennai, 24 Nov 2015:The recent heavy rain exposed a number of civic issues, besides leaving several arterial and interior roads flooded. Shoddy civic works and storm water drains added to the difficulty of commuters and residents.

In Korattur Professor Somasundaram, a victim, narrates the harrowing experience he faced during the recent showers, “The water was six feet deep and the electricity supply was cut down for days which left me with no choice but to leave my house until things came back to normal”, he says.

Residents state that the rain fiercely affected shops in the area and commercial establishments would have incurred at least a loss of Rs 50,000 each.

The house which had encroached upon the lake beds faced the wrath of the floods by getting submerged. Few days of flooding also reaffirmed that SWDs are not sufficient, says Suresh, a resident.

Some residents recount the plight of having to wade through rain water mixed with sewage. Some of the main roads were water-logged and many streets were also flooded. The worst was Varadharaja street where water was waist high and mixed with sewage water.

It is reported that the Thangal lake was full and the water was overflowing on the pathway of the newly laid park which is used by thousands of people. Many streets got flooded with the water seeped in some houses. The residents are reported to the authorities to arrange to clear the garbage and waste from the storm water drainages so as to facilitate free movement of water.

With the stagnation continuing for over an week residents were put up to lot of hardship, with no other choice but to swim in the water to meet their daily essential needs including vegetables and milk.

Monsoon hits Chennai for a week

Sowmiya.M

Chennai, 13 Nov 2015 : Chennai has been facing heavy rainfall for the past 5 days which resulted with potholes in the roads, heavy traffic, water stagnation and many more. Due to the continuous rainfall all schools and colleges have been declared holiday for the third day.

Almost many areas in Chennai were flooded and people from varied places suffer to go out. The next comes the traffic jam in every places where the rain water is stagnated in many places in Chennai  which makes the travelling a nightmare for the commuters.  

As the rainwater has entered many houses in Kanni Thope street in Vallalar Nagar due to the flood for the past 3 days few residents from this place have been shifted to other places, and if the rain continues there are still more people to vacate their home for few days, says Jagan, a resident from Vallalar Nagar.

According to Chennai Weather Forecast, a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal crossed near the Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coast, resulting in heavy rain and consequent flood in many parts of Tamil Nadu.

The Met report says, “Chembarambakkam lake is full and anytime they may open excess water. If that happens people are supposed to avoid Vadapalani to Koyambedu stretch. All trains between Perumbur and Chennai Central are stopped. Between Patravakkam to Ambattur there is a  4ft deep flowing flood. Porur toll gate to porur junction has been blocked due to heavy rainfall. Anna nagar west to Koyembed slow moving traffic with 2 ft deep water stagnation”.

Fire accident at waste paper mart

M.Sowmiya

Chennai, 12 Oct 2015: Transformer bursts and a major fire broke out in the Old Waste Paper Mart in Ambattur around 5.30 in the evening.

Workers noticed the fire and a thick smoke emanating from the bursted transformer and they alerted the other people and moved out from the shop. Three fire engines were rushed to the spot and extinguished devastating flames after one hour.

Residents in the nearby said that they heard a thunderous noise and the entire shop was engulfed with smoke. ``Nothing was visible for some time and after a few minutes we realised that it was only papers burning, said Mr. D. Ashok, proprietor of the Bakery shop.

It took more than one hour to control the fire with the help of three fire engines. Not only that a normal water tanker lorry was also used to putup the fire as the three fire engines was not sufficient. Though it was a busy road, it was sheer luck that no person was injured when the transformer burst, residents said.

M.Sowmiya

Chennai, 7 Sept 2015: With sudden showers, vendors in the neighbourhood are facing  issues like water logging, traffic congestion and slushy stretches in CTH Road, Avadi.

As the neighbourhood experiences occasional rainfall during late evenings, it is the street vendors who are the most affected.

According to Mani, who arranged his vegetables on a piece of jute cloth on the corner of the CTH Road says, if it is a mild shower, then there wouldn’t be much damage to vegetables, but one has to be quick enough to wrap up all the product when there is a down pour. It is a big challenge for us to prevent these huge stock of vegetables form decaying, during such unforeseen conditions.

Hawkers who sell earthenware materials and flowers witness huge loss and weak business due to intermittent rains.

Everyday it is not possible for me to carry pots and other materials to home and bring them back here on CTH Road. Hence I leave them here in a corner and setup my products the next day. Everytime when there are heavy rains I not only lose my morning business but there will also be damages to my earthenware materials which I cannot replace, says Kamatchi, a vendor.

Sometimes, vendors who come from faraway villages to sell their products, are affected a lot. Apart from vendors, common people are also in trouble, as they are forced to do spend more on buying agricultural products, as prices of vegetables raise sharply after a down pour.