DMK’s fortress jostles in traffic jams, chokes on mountains of junk at Perungudi

CHENNAI: South Chennai Lok Sabha constituency, having an electorate of 20.7 lakh, is home to iconic places of worship, tourist spots, top educational institutes including IIT-Madras, business institutes and IT firms.

There is no dearth of excitement throughout South Chennai. The third Lok Sabha constituency from the capital city, the constituency has seen many epochal contests. This constituency was won by prominent figures such as India’s first Finance Minister TT Krishnamachari, late Chief Minister CN Annadurai, former President R Venkataraman, actor Vyjayanthimala and Murasoli Maran. But the seat continues to be a bottleneck for the Citizens, despite its star status.

Apart from long-standing issues such as lack of basic amenities, traffic congestion, especially in the shopping hub T-Nagar. Other arterial parts of the seat such as Mount Road, Adyar, Velachery, Thiruvanmiyur and Sholinganallur, buzzed by commuters, aren’t also exempt from the issue.

Inadequacy of the MRTS service between Velachery-St Thomas Mount and the lack of action taken by the Union government to set up a multi-super-speciality hospital in Sholinganallur are some of the issues affecting the pubic.

A techie from Velachery, VN Manoj, said that Old Mahabalipuram Road (Rajiv Gandhi Salai), despite earning the name IT hub, has no cluster centres. “Only a small number of new IT firms have been set up so far and the traffic congestion due to the ongoing CMRL Phase II work has put the employees in distress,” he said.

“Tasmac outlets have not been removed at many places as announced by the government and the infrastructure development works such as preventing flooding in the constituency have been delayed,” he added.

“The Perungudi dump yard is a long-standing menace of the locality. The biggest allegation is that solid waste management is not handled properly there. In the Taramani, Perungudi and Sholinganallur areas, there are still problems in providing drinking water connections and sewerage connections. In some places like Medavakkam, and Pallikaranai, works for stormwater drainage and sewage lines are going at slow pace,” said K Sankavi, an advocate from Taramani.

Efforts have been taken to address these issues, said DMK candidate for Chennai South and sitting MP, Tamizhachi Thangapandian. She said her MPLADS fund was fully spent for completing development works of the Chennai South constituency.

“A new fish market building in Kottivakkam has come up, additional buildings for government schools, and new community welfare centres at various places in the constituency have been built. Under the SAGY scheme, I have adopted Chittalapakkam village, improved the infrastructure there and made it a model village. Due to my diligent efforts, Pallikaranai Marshland has received RAMSAR recognition. The St Thomas Mount - Velachery MRTS train project has also been restarted,” she said.

Slamming the previous MPs and the state government, BJP candidate Tamilisai Soundararajan said, “If I am elected as MP, I will implement the projects required by the Chennai South constituency.”

“I have been living in Chennai South constituency (Virugambakkam) for the past 40 years not as a candidate, but as a voter,” she said.

A former MP of Chennai South and AIADMK candidate J Jayavardhan said, “If I win, I will ensure completion of the Velachery-St Thomas Mount MRTS project, CMRL project, Pallikaranai marshland development works and SWD works.”

“What are all the projects I brought during my tenure as MP to Chennai South LS constituency, have been stopped by the DMK MP. Tamilachi Thangapandian is inactive as a people’s representative. The DMK government is deceiving the people by increasing property tax, electricity bills and increasing the price of milk. I am campaigning with a focus on my previous activities as an MP, highlighting the DMK government’s anti-people activities and AIADMK’s election promises for the Chennai South constituency,” he noted.

The DMK has been the dominant party in the Chennai South LS constituency, which has elected the Dravidian party’s representative most number of times. Just like Chennai Central, Chennai South is DMK’s fortress tough for Tamilisai and AIADMK candidates to breach. DMK has won 8 times, Congress 5 times and AIADMK 3 times in Chennai South constituency. DMK MP and Treasurer TR Baalu have been elected as MP for a maximum of 4 times