Chennai: Residents and civic activists, get ready for a surprise. Your ward councilor is likely to please you and play Santa. With elections round the corner, councillors are now visible supervising civic works.
Be it inspecting the wards or unnecessarily relaying the good roads, they leave no stone unturned to please the voters.
In a contrary reaction, residents are aggravated over the move, as roads laid without milling have increased the height, escalating chances of flooding during the next rain.
While council of ward 160 boasts of the newly laid road at Madhavapuram in Alandur constituency, residents say otherwise.
“The tar road laid three years ago was in a good condition. The issues we had complained of including re engineering of underground drainage, was not settled, as it requires more manpower and budget. As this is easy, they laid the road overnight,” said Peer Mohammed, a resident.
Talking to Deccan Chronicle, the councillor said he had laid the road after obtaining the permission from Alandur zonal office. On why there was no milling, he remained silent.
“Roads are now being laid overnight. They are sub-standard and would require renovation in less than six months. What is the point in laying such roads” asked a resident of Giri Street, T Nagar. The road was relaid recently without milling.
Though certain representatives started visiting the wards to earn a positive impression, some are unaffected by the rush.
“Our councilor (ward 136) would have visited the locality less than 10 times in the past five years. Even now, he does not visit to attract votes. We are so disturbed about the stagnant progress here,” said V.S. Jayaraman, member of T Nagar welfare association.
