Encroachments rampant around Tambaram Corporation headquarters

By: Sonu M KothariCHENNAI: Pavement encroachers have a field day just outside the premises of the Tambaram Corporation headquarters as the civic body officials look the other way. Despite a cyclist dying of accident months ago owing to road side encroachments in the Chromepet area of the corporation, no lesson has been learnt. The corporation is favouring the street vendors and has allowed spaces for the vendors to put up stalls along the streets. The shops have covered half of the street and stalls are put up on the pavements meant for the people to walk. Some have squatted even on the closed sewage gutters. It is difficult for the common man to move at any time of the day. The situation is worse during festival times as more shops are installed, residents said."The corporation has helped me put up this shop. I pay 20 every day to the civic body. During festivals, we are asked to move," Said M Raja Mohammad, who sells earrings at the area.Many similar encroachments are coming up in the vicinity like Chromepet, Pallavaram, and Tambaram East. To help the street vendors with their businesses, the government is surveying the number of street vendors across the state and providing them with a biometric card.About 200 vendors have their stalls displayed on Muthuranga Mudali Street, Tambaram, where the corporation office is also located. "The pavements should be freed for the people to walk and roads for the motorists to drive. But the stalls are positioned on pavements and roads. Now, where can a motorist to drive and a pedestrian walk?" questions David Manohar of NGO Arappor Iyakkam.Another activist V Santhanam said, "We cannot ask the vendors to move, that is not the solution. Instead, these vendors could put up their stalls in abandoned parks or other spots in the same area so that people could do their purchases from these spots and the others could walk and drive smoothly on the roads."Tambaram corporation commissioner M Elangovan said, "The situation is under control. To control the traffic, the corporation is working with the police department to find out a permanent solution. But for the time being, yellow tape has been put up restricting the movement of vendors so that the commuters could use the whole street to move. This action was taken 15 days before taking into consideration the movement of the general public and also the vendors."