Chennai based citizen group Chitlapakam Rising has been at the forefront of resolving civic issues plaguing their neighbourhood.

However, on Tuesday, the city police refused permission to the NGO to stage a peaceful protest urging the government to expedite de-silting of the Chitlapakam lake and remove the mounting garbage in the locality.

According to members of Chitlapakam Rising, the Chennai Police Commissioner rejected their request citing law and order concerns.

The group had planned to stage the demonstration on October 20 with the main focus on the delay in lake de-silting by the government. Earlier in 2019, members of 'Chitlapakam Rising had grabbed headlines when they embarked on a lake clean up mission. However, they stopped after Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy announced Rs 25 crore in July for the renovation of the Chitlapakam lake under Section 110 of the Tamil Nadu Assembly Rules.

"A bit of the work was started in July and the the private agency who got the contract managed to clean up 10-15 percent of the southern portion of the lake which is dried up. However, the contractors abandoned the work and left in a month later, complaining that the government fund of Rs 25 crore was not released," says Salesh, a member of the group.

With the North-East monsoons already hitting the state, de-silting work will be even more challenging, Salesh adds.

"If the work is not completed by this year, we will again suffer water shortage next year. In 2018, we really struggled with water scarcity as the lake did not have water and the water from the Chitlapakam-Madambakkam pipeline project fell short of the residents water requirement," Lakshmi, a core member of Chitlapakam Rising told TNM.

Mounting garbage

The group has also raised the issue of garbage being dumped in the locality and the corporation officials refusing to remove it. Currently, garbage has been dumped in a huge pile behind the Panchayat office in Chitlapakam 2nd main road.

The group also claims that the Panchayat authorities stated that there was no other place to dump the gargage and hence it could not be cleared.

"There are several related issues which are pending resolution. The single use pastic ban has not been executed in this locality well. Electricity postmaintenance, garbage segregation etc are not attended to. We do not even have a permanent Executive Officer who is responsible for these issues," Lakshmi added.

Residents allege shoddy work done in the name of drain project

The incident comes a year after the NGO had been denied permission to stage a protest against the arrest of two of their members. Then too, the police had cited law and order concerns for denying permit.

The two members were arrested on false charges for questioning the government on the shoddy work done in the name of 'cut and cover' project to drain out flood water being executed in the area.

"The PWD had started the cut and cover project last year. When we had asked for details of the project, they promised to give us the work order copy. But they did not deliver this promise. Further, the project itself had been delayed by 6 months from the date of tender confirmation," Lakshmi says.

Residents have also highlighted the poor manner of execution of the cut and cover project undertaken by the Public Works Department (PWD).

"Cut and cover drain project initiated by the Public Works Department is making no progress, especially at Balaji avenue. From this street, the drain channel should lead to the Sembakkam lake for the flood water to flow into the lake. However, an effluent treatment plant belonging to the Chitlakapakam Town Panchayat is obstructing construction," Dayanad Krishnan, a resident of Chitlapakam wrote to a daily newspaper.

However, the group managed to receive permission to protest from the Madras High Court. This time too, the group plans to appeal to the court in order to seek permission to protest the government's civic apathy.

"Now that the police have refused to give us permission, we will approach the court in order to get permission. Our members are already preparing to move the High Court," Salesh said.

In September, Chitlapakam was in the news after a 42-year-old resident died after an electric pole collapsed and fell on him, while he was feeding stray dogs. Following the accident, members of Chitlapakam Rising highlighted the condition of electric poles in the neighbourhood by conducting a survey. Their survey revealed that several posts and transformers in the locality were damaged, loose or dangerously ill-maintained - posing an imminent threat to residents.

The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board which was pulled up following the incident undertook restoration of damaged electric poles in the streets soon after the accident.