Citizen Connect: Irked over garbage menace, Peerkankaranai residents wonder if there is a local body

The Peerkankaranai village panchayat consists of 15 wards with more 25,000 residents. The neighbourhood is one of the fast-developing in the southern suburbs of Chennai, as many people from other districts and also States who work at the nearby IT Park have rented homes here.

Despite being a growing neighbourhood, however, the Peerkankaranai panchayat does not have a designated place to dump garbage. As a result, the local body is forced to dump them in vacant lands and even in street corners in some cases.

The situation is especially grim in Balaji Street and Gokulam Street. In the case of Gokulam Street, along which a government school is located, garbage is dumped in a vacant land. Local residents said hundreds of students pass by mounds of stinking garbage to reach their school every day.

“As the storm water drains in this street are left open, some of the garbage gets dumped into them thereby clogging the drains, which in turn causes flooding even after a minor rain,” said D Sovin, a resident of Gokulam Street. Similarly, in Balaji Street, garbage is being dumped in the street corner every day. More than 50 houses are present in the street besides a church. Locals also noted that hundreds of vehicles pass by the street every day, as it is a key connecting street to several other neighbourhoods.

“The people who cross the Balaji Street have to close their nose because the stench is unbearable. Many school children, too, pass through this stretch. The panchayat officials are aware of this, but it seems they don’t care of the people, including the children," said Kamalakannan, another local resident.

Residents claim that they have repeatedly complained to panchayat officials but no action has been taken so far. “We don’t know if the panchayat is even functioning as we see no proof of it,” said Kamalakannan, irked at the official indifference. “It takes the panchayat at least 10 days to even replace a malfunctioning street light,” he added.

When contacted, Peerkankaranai Executive Officer R Suma said that she would look into the issue and make sure that garbage was cleared regularly. She also assured steps would be taken prevent the dumping of garbage in future.