Chennai: Madras Day fete at Elliot’s beach

CHENNAI: The city corporation will organise a festival comprising cultural events at Elliot’s Beach on Saturday and Sunday from 3.30 pm to 11.30 pm to mark the 383rd Madras Day.
Under the tag ‘Our City, Our Pride’, contests will be held on short films, photography and art. Dance events, food festival and cultural activities are also being planned.
Greater Chennai Corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said August 22 is a day of pride as it marks the birth of the city.“Since 1639, the village Madrasapattinam transformed gradually into today’s metropolitan city, recording a journey of 383 years. To mark this wonderful occasion, we are holding these events. GCC will also have its vaccination camps and manure sales stalls at the event,” he said.
While welcoming the idea behind the festival, several residents have urged the corporation to rope in popular celebrities to highlight the need for environment-friendly steps such as beach clean-up programmes, garbage removal drives and encroachment removal drives, among other issues.
Satish Galley, a resident of OMR, said the corporation must conduct plastic-seizure and beach clean-up drives on the occasion, “This will increase awareness about these issues among participants and also send a message to keep the city clean,” he said.
Activist N Gopalakrishnan said encroachments are a major problem and it will be befitting to conduct a drive against them with celebrities to send a message.