Reporter’s Diary: This govt official pitches for a positive spin, or sulks

Recently, when this reporter asked a Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) official’s reaction for a story regarding the contamination of Metrowater supplied in Tondiarpet, the official thanked the reporter for bringing it to his notice and assured it would be fixed immediately.

When the reporter probed further and asked for reasons for the contamination despite repeated complaints from the public, the official became curious and wanted to know why this scribe needed details as long as he was going to fix the problem. 

When told that it was to print his response in the newspaper, the attitude of the official changed and he even requested this scribe to wait for a few days for the issue to be fixed and then write about how the Metrowater Department went about solving people’s problems.

Ironically, if the same official had paid any notice to residents’ complaint over not being able to use drinking water supplied to them even for gardening purposes as it was so contaminated, there would not have been any need for an article on the same in the first place.

While the water problem did get solved, the official has now stopped responding to this reporter’s calls.