Drained Away - The Hopes of Ambattur residents And Their Hard-Earned Money

I have this piece from my friend Mohanakrishnan about the travails of Ambattur residents who have been waiting for drainage services that they paid for a long time ago. A lack of drains means something dirtily simple - sewage cannot be removed efficiently. And this means that the ambition articulated by this blog, "Clean India," is affected. Here is Mohan's post verbatim:

Quote [In 1999 Sathyanathan residing in Ambattur paid Rs.7500/- to the municipality for a drainage connection along with hundreds of others. He is still waiting. The Ambattur municipality laid the foundation stone for the project in March 2001 during the previous DMK regime. It is one of the longest delayed projects of the present government. The municipality collected Rs.8.14 crore from 11500 households but has not even completed 50% of the work till date.

Though resident associations staged road-rokos and filed applications under the Right to Information Act (RTI) the response has not been satisfactory. According to the municipality the contract was awarded to Nagarjuna Constructions who began work in November 2004. The contract was terminated in 2007 as they quoted 120% above the estimate for the balance work. The project was then handed over to the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (CMWSSB). They could have given it to them initially itself.

CMWSSB is citing the following reasons for delay in completing the project. 1)Monsoon (?) I heard that India is facing a severe drought. Can a few drops of water trickling down intermittently be construed as a monsoon? 2)Elections 3)Change of location in pumping and lifting stations 4)Public objection in some areas 5)Change in alignment of the Chennai by-pass.

The municipality on the other hand has taken up another drainage project at a cost of Rs.155 crore to be implemented under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme. Let us hope that this too does not drain away.] End Quote.

I wonder whom the hapless Ambattur residents need to lobby to get what they have paid for?