DT Next impact: Temple encroachment in Madipakkam removed

CHENNAI: On the same day that DT Next published a story about a temple encroaching a street in Madipakkam, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) removed an under-construction compound wall, on Thursday.

The issue was raised by GM Shankar, an activist based in Madipakkam, using Namma Chennai App a few days ago. He had raised a complaint to remove the pillars raised by the temple management on Kunnalamman Street to construct the compound wall. Despite the complaint, the civic officials attached to the concerned ward hesitated to act against the construction.

Following this, DT Next published a story with photographs of the encroachment in Thursday’s issue. “Within a few hours after the story was published, officials removed the pillar, and the street has been repaired temporarily. Action should be taken against the persons, who damaged the street,” Shankar said.

Earlier, officials were hesitating to act against the encroachers citing law and order issues. When contacted before publishing the story, the official had said that he’ll instruct temple management to stop construction of the compound wall, but no measures were taken to remove the structure.