Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Reporter's Diary

Attributing motives

Political motives are sometimes attributed to even common civic complaints. A case in point:

Last week, an irate resident of Mandaveli called a newspaper office to complain about disruption of power supply to some streets in the area. He said supply had been suspended several times that week and that the Electricity Board officials of the area would not answer their queries. One was quite irate. He wondered whether the power cut was a political move since the Mylapore MLA also lives in the locality. He wanted a reporter to `investigate' the matter. When a reporter made enquiries, a senior official of the area said he was not aware of the problem. Soon after, his subordinate called and explained the situation. New cables were being laid for the area and the problem would be set right by that evening. He even apologised for the inconvenience caused to the residents.

Show of insensitivity

The Founder's Day celebration of an organisation in the city was a textbook case of insensitivity towards the physically challenged. The programme included distributing artificial limbs to three people. It was held on the second floor of a building with a non-functional lift. That may have been due to the power shutdown. However, the person who introduced the beneficiaries described their physical problems in close anatomical detail and gave the list of problems the organisers encountered while getting the limbs made. "We have chosen three people with different problems, so that our members may have the chance to see different kinds of disabilities," he concluded.

Women only

Women commuters were annoyed to see men comfortably seated in the ladies compartment till the St. Thomas Mount station in a Tambaram-Beach train on Monday. Railway authorities asked the men to alightwhen women commuters protested. While getting off the train a student of a leading school in Chetpet left behind his sports kit in the compartment. He later picked it up at Saidapet after he reported his carelessness to the St. Thomas Mount stationmaster, who had in turn alerted his counterpart.

"Green" obstruction

Providing a green cover need not always be a good solution. The traffic signal at the TTK Road-Radhakrishnan Salai junction is partially covered by the branches of a tree nearby (see photo). Vehicle users coming down TTK Road cannot see the lights unless they are close enough

Contributions by R. Sujatha, J. Malarvizhi and Meera Srinivasan.

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