Don’t bring politics in Amma canteens, Chennai needs them, says former mayor

The new Chennai mayor should bury the political difference and concentrate on Amma canteens that are witnessing quality deterioration after the regime change in the State, said former mayor Saidai S Duraisamy in an interview to DT Next.

The seasoned politician, who was instrumental in setting up Amma canteens, also shared the grey areas that the new mayor should focus on in making Chennai a better city for its residents.

Maintenance of the Amma canteen is a serious issue and the mayor should inspect the canteens regularly so that the facility is back to its glory. Another major issue is road widening programmes. The government focus is usually to build flyovers at junctions ignoring the bottlenecks. Flyovers and bridges give temporary relief but in my views road widening will have better long-term results to address growing traffic congestion.

“The new mayor will have a Herculean task of administrating the capital city that has a plethora of civic issues ranging from traffic, floods and garbage disposal. Political and administrative issues will also pop out from Ripon Buildings whenever the roads have to be widened or encroachments cleared while redeveloping the old city. The mayor should horn the skills sets for handling the politicians and the field engineers who nurture illegal buildings and administrative flaws,” Duraisamy said.

At the same time, the corporation-run community centres are often run by cartels that book these centres for months. This should be abolished by making the booking process transparent with the Aadhaar details of the bride and the groom along with their betrothal (nichayathartham) details, the former mayor suggested.

For addressing the flooding and the beautification issues, Duraisamy said the restoration of Cooum will bring respite and termed the project as an ambitious long-pending due for the Dravidian parties.

He also pointed out that the toilet facilities in Chennai was lacking attention and needed to be improvised with free service for public use. “During my tenure as mayor, water kiosks were opened to provide safe drinking water and this should be brought back,” opined the former mayor.

Milling of roads, road cut permissions and long withstanding concrete roads for 20 to 30 years’ life are some of the other suggestions given by the previous mayor, who demitted office in 2016.