Sigh of relief for commuters as reopening of subway, eases out crowded situation during peak hours.
Martin F.R.
CHENNAI PARK: As the over bridge is
replaced by the subway which is been opened after 3 years of closure due to
ongoing metro works, the economic livelihood of daily wage workers &
sellers have been affected drastically as they have been forced to evacuate.
As, the work in sector B (10) seems
to be still incomplete and technical measures are taken by CMRL to speed up the
long pending works across all the sectors, the solution seems to be a hectic
one as the overbridge that was created to oversee the smooth functioning till
the metro works gets completed seems to be biggest stumbling block for the
technical difficulties the central area has been facing especially the sector B
(10).
The Municipal Corporation which has
been pulled by the State PWD Dept. for excessive clogging in the Chennai
central –Chennai park area due to the formation of pseudo parallel bazaar has
taken strict measures and through use of force, has completely shut most of the
mini stalls as the pressure on them was at a time when metroworks delay have
already been under the ire of heavy criticism by the public & regional media
houses. Most of the shops have been denied permission to setup their stalls
after the opening of the subway, which has created an outcry among local daily
wage workers group as they have where to go.
Permission of setting up marginal no. of stalls affecting
the daily wage sellers in Chennai central-park.
Kannama, a daily wage seller at that
area says that ‘’where shall we all go, this was highly unexpected, we were not
informed by beforehand itself by anyone, neither from the local administration
nor the police officials’’. Unknowingly she even says as the local councilor of
this area is not from their adidravida & vanniyar community, his upper
caste communities is all behind all this mess and plight of theirs and at the
same time also blaming the local administration for being inhumane.
Even though the strict measures taken
by municipal authorities seems to be in right direction and are under the
provision of the state laws, but it seems sudden charismatic stunts under
pressure always proves fatal for the unheard voices of the poor who have to
bear the brunt at the end of the day, who are always uninformed about what’s
coming upon them.
Through sources, it seems the
corporation officials are simply of the view and say that whatever they have
done were based on the higher orders that they received and are need to be
followed as a regular procedure and they are very well accomplishing the task
that they were supposed to do, nothing else, as been said by the local sellers
and all those are just self imagined rumors being created by them to get
attention. They all knew one day such scenario shall come and they all were
bunch of illegal public space hoarders.
The fact of the matter is that the
subway that has been opened seems to be very clean and well managed by the
authorities and no dwelling in of the shops seems to be allowed inside the
subway which has ensured smooth bypass for nearly 10 lac daily commuters.
Anagha Vijayakumar, A daily commuter
says ‘’It seems that at last my wish is fulfilled, as I have been using this
route for my work nearly since 2009 and once seeing subway open up, frees me of
the crowd that rushes up during the over bridge days as the surface area used
to be minimum and due to the presence of sellers all over the bridge made their
commute very hassle oriented.
RaniAmmal, An old lady says, “At last
I do not need to climb over that bridge now but I miss it as the escalator is
no more present and I have to use the subway, though I don’t frequently come by
this route, but of course it is a cause of concern for me”. Smilingly, she even
demands an escalator in the subway for old age citizens like her.
But, corruption is known to be a
synonymous twin to our country, as it seems the local policemen have started
their side business once again, but carefully carving out their disenchanted
steps and staying in the ambit of law as again more and more new sellers
instead of old usual sellers have replaced them but are kept at the periphery
of the subway to setup their temporary stalls.
Manikandan, a Traffic Policeman says,
there were never a prohibition order for not having stalls across the area, and
it was just a temporary measure taken by us to ensure that the Over bridge is
removed on time to facilitate the side by metro works and subway is reinstated
to its regular functioning which caused tensions across the area.But,yes a
decision was taken by authorities not allow the congestion caused by these
stalls & sellers inside the subway and we are very strict from the
beginning itself and ensuring proper laws are instated in the area.
Who is speaking the truth and lie an ever
going ride of speculation that we won’t indulge in but, yes for sure, on one
side commuters are seem little happier but that happiness has caused someone’s
else’s livelihood. Although, it’s not the job of the government, but it should
be taken up as a humanitarian cause and these estranged people’s livelihood
should be restored to some extent in one way or other as many of them have a family to take care of including kids
& ailing old age persons.
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