Latest news with #TamilNaduUrbanHabitatDevelopmentBoard
New Indian Express
28-05-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
Fire guts 20 huts in MKB Nagar; homeless families seek aid, housing
CHENNAI: Kanaga B, 48, is homeless and burdened with debt, as she has lost not only her house, but also Rs 50,000 in cash that she had borrowed at a steep 15% interest. She is one among the many families whose lives and livelihoods have been affected by the fire that swept through Sathiya Murthy Nagar Main Road in MKB Nagar on Monday evening. Kanaga, who lives alone in a makeshift house and earns a living by selling appalam, pickles, and semiya (vermicelli) on city streets, had returned from work at a wedding hall to find her home engulfed in flames. The fire, reportedly triggered by an electrical short circuit in one of the huts, rapidly spread through the densely packed settlement, gutting at least 20 huts. 'All I had is gone - clothes, appliances, vessels, and the money I borrowed just a few days ago. I don't know how to repay the debt now,' said Kanaga, speaking from a government school in Udhayasuriyan Nagar where she has taken temporary shelter along with other victims. Every day, Kanaga would walk to the wholesale markets in Parrys Corner near Broadway, purchase a jute bag of appalam, or semiya, and sell them on foot in the streets. A single bag of ragi semiya costs her around Rs 1,600, for which she needed loans. 'The money burnt along with the appalam I had bought for selling,' she told TNIE. The hutment stood on a private piece of land that was occupied 18 years ago. While officials said that the land had been encroached by families, residents had requested Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board houses.
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Time of India
Tambaram cops launch ‘back to college' programme for disadvantaged students
Chennai: To curb crime and promote education, the Tambaram police have launched an outreach programme at Perumbakkam to assist economically disadvantaged students in pursuing higher education. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Perumbakkam houses more than 20,000 families resettled by the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB). With most residents are daily wage earners or low-income workers, many children, due to financial constraints, drop out after completing Class XII and some turn to crime or substance abuse, police say. To break this cycle, Tambaram police commissioner Abin Dinesh Modak asked police personnel to identify students who completed Class XII and are willing to study further. "Our officers will help them with the application process, documentation, and coordinate with colleges to ensure they are not left behind due to financial or social barriers," said a senior officer. Police teams are going street by street with public address systems and visiting homes to spread awareness about this opportunity. Special evening camps will be set up in the Perumbakkam TNUHDB housing complexes, where students can submit college application copies, Class XII certificates, and mark sheets for guidance and assistance. "We believe that empowering youth with education is the most effective way to reduce crime and build a better society," said a senior officer overseeing the programme. "We are not just enforcing law and order — we're investing in the future of these communities," he added. Residents and local leaders have welcomed the initiative. "For years, our children have struggled to go beyond school. This support from the police gives us new hope," said Meenakshi, a resident of Perumbakkam. Students interested in availing themselves of the support have been urged to attend the upcoming police-organized camps with their documents.
The Hindu
21-05-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Speaker, Tirunelveli Collector review progress of ongoing development schemes of Radhapuram constituency
Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M. Appavu and District Collector R. Sukumar inspected 7 major ongoing development works in the Radhapuram Assembly constituency on Wednesday. Mr. Appavu and Dr. Sukumar inspected the construction of Valliyoor government hospital, apartments with 506 units being built by the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board, Valliyoor Bus-Stand, Valliyoor Market, drinking water project for Kalakkad municipality and 7 town panchayats, another drinking water project costing ₹609 crore for 831 villages in Radhapuram Assembly constituency and groyne construction at Kootapuli at the cost of ₹48.50 crore. The Valliyoor Government Hospital, situated advantageously close to the four-lane national highway, is being built at the cost of ₹30 crore with four modern operation theatres, CT scan facilities and geriatric ward. The upcoming hospital will have all modern facilities to ensure better medical care to the patients. The ground floor of the hospital will have all clinical diagnostic services, CT scan, digital X-ray, ultrasound scan, ECG, general medicine, paediatric, gynaecology, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, psychiatry and dermatology departments and the kitchen for preparing food for the patients. Facility for post-mortem is also being created separately on this campus. The first floor will house in-patient wards, post-operative care ward, dialysis etc. The intensive care units, four operation theaters, tuberculosis ward, de-addiction ward, HIV treatment ward and geriatric ward will be created in the second floor. 'While the geriatric ward is a common feature in a medical college hospital in the modern medicine, for the first time, a geriatric ward is being created in a government hospital for benefiting the senior citizens of Valliyoor and its surroundings. The officials concerned have been instructed to complete the work at the earliest. We expect the Valliyoor government hospital to be ready to receive patients from September this year,' Mr. Appavu hoped. Apart from the hospital, a round the clock, Public Health Laboratory on an outlay of ₹1 crore, which will be vital cog in Department of Public Health's disease surveillance programme, is also coming up on the premises. The upcoming clinical lab will be a boon to the patients from Valliyoor and other areas up to Radhapuram, Thisayanvilai, Nanguneri, Kalakkad and Pazhavoor since a range of microbiological, biochemistry and pathology investigations can be done here. Hence, the lab is expected to play vital role in prevention and control of epidemic-prone diseases in this region. The lab will provide services such as stool culture, blood culture, operation theatre swab analysis, bacteriological analysis of drinking water, serology / ELISA for dengue, chikungunya, viral hepatitis (A and E), measles, leptospirosis, scrub typhus etc. The Speaker, after inspecting the ongoing construction of the Valliyoor bus-stand on an outlay of ₹12.13 crore and the reconstruction of the market at the cost of ₹6.03 crore, reviewed the progress of the groyne construction at Koottapuli. Mr. Appavu and the Collector gave much importance to the early completion of the two drinking water projects meant for Radhapuram Assembly constituency being implemented at the cost of ₹609 crore and the other one costing ₹423.13 crore for Kalakkad municipality and Nanguneri, Ervadi, Moolaikaraipatti and Thirukkurungudi town panchayats, all falling under Nanguneri Assembly constituency, and Valliyoor, Thisayanvilai and Panagudi town panchayats in Radhapuram Assembly segment. 'Both the projects should be expedited and commissioned at the earliest even though December-end is the deadline,' said Mr. Appavu. Even as Mr. Appavu and Dr. Sukumar were inspecting the ongoing construction of the Valliyoor bus-stand, they had to encounter the Valliyoor town panchayat's inefficiency as around 100 residents of Kottaiyadi in ward 18 of the urban civic body heaped their complaints in front of them. The residents complained that they were not getting drinking water in sufficient quantity even as other parts of Valliyoor were ensured decent supply. Moreover, the roads in this area were in pathetic shape, they said. The Speaker and the Collector immediately asked the officials of Valliyoor town panchayat to address these complaints and submit the compliance report within a week.
New Indian Express
09-05-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
Tailor's daughter scores 591 in Class 12 board exams, repeats Class 10, 11 feat
CHENNAI: V Keerthika, the daughter of a newspaper delivery man and a factory tailor, has topped Chennai in the Class 12 board examinations by scoring 591 out of 600 - the highest among all Chennai Corporation schools. A student of Chennai Girls' Higher Secondary School in Pulla Avenue, Shenoy Nagar, Keerthika has once again made her parents proud, as she was a topper in both classes 10 and 11. Despite her academic brilliance, financial constraints have now forced Keerthika to alter her higher education plans. The savings from her scholarship amount of Rs 53,000 were recently used to pay her brother's BTech college fees. With this, an engineering course, her first choice, is no longer an option, says Keerthika. She is now planning to enrol in an arts college, with political science or a related subject and go on to prepare for civil services. Keerthika lives with her family in the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board tenements in TP Chatram, Shenoy Nagar. 'Residing on the ground floor, our toilets often get clogged. Though the government staff respond to our complaints after repeated calls, there's never a permanent fix.' 'All I ever wanted was to build an independent home for my parents - a peaceful place they could call their own,' she adds. V Suganya, her mother, suffers from varicose vein issues and cannot work, while P Venkatesan, her father, remains the family's sole breadwinner. To ease the burden, Keerthika's brother also helps with newspaper delivery. 'Despite our financial constraints, we always wanted to give our children a good education. But now that the money we had saved for our daughter has been used up, we can only hope someone comes forward to support her financially in achieving her dream,' her mother said.
New Indian Express
22-04-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
Stuck & ‘powerless', 13 families left to brave elements at Chennai's Moolakothalam
CHENNAI: As Samuthira, an 8-year-old girl, plays alone in the debris-covered street of Ramdoss Nagar in Moolakothalam, her laughter echoes on the empty street. She lives with her mother and sister in one of the few remaining houses in the area, as the others were demolished as part of resettlement. With electricity to the left-out houses disconnected, Samuthira could barely sleep at night. The girl's mother S Nagalakshmi (40) is among the at least 13 families who were left behind when over 300 families from Ramdoss Nagar and Pirivil Thottam were moved into newly built tenements by the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) in Moolakothalam in September 2024 from the corporation-owned land. Of those families left behind, seven are single women-led households. Despite claiming to have the necessary documents to prove long-term residence status in Ramdoss Nagar, these families were allegedly denied housing. Nagalakshmi's application was rejected allegedly because she couldn't produce a 'deserted woman certificate' to prove her husband had abandoned her six years ago, she said. 'For the certificate, I have to file a complaint with the police. The police refused to file my complaint, saying it's been years since my husband went missing,' she says. She now lives with her two daughters, aged 8 and 10, in an abandoned structure, once occupied by a neighbour who was relocated to the tenements. She moved out of her house after it became home to many snakes. In the area, barely 13 makeshift houses remain, and is surrounded by broken walls and heaps of debris. As per a G.O. issued by the Housing and Urban Development Department on January 25, 2022, applicants may submit Aadhaar and any 'one' of the following as address proof: Ration card, electricity bill, gas bill, birth certificate, or voter ID. Yet officials insisted on only the ration card, the families said. When they produced the ration cards now, they are being told that the beneficiary contribution has risen to Rs 4.5 lakhs- three times more than the Rs 1.5 lakh paid by their 300 other neighbours. 'How can the initial scheme end after including us in the enumeration? Are they selling our houses to others?,' a resident questioned. Most of the residents are daily-wage workers, earning only Rs 300 a day or less, he said adding, paying Rs 1.5 lakh itself is difficult, and Rs 4.5 lakh is just out of reach. With the demolition of most houses, electricity connections to their houses have been disconnected. 'We tap power from the streetlight poles,' Nagalakshmi, who works as a housekeeping staff, says. 'One night, nearly a month ago, a man tried to enter our house while we were asleep. I woke up to the sound, screamed, and he fled.' Since the power connection depends on the streetlights, they are able to use lights until 6 am after which the power automatically goes out along with the street lights. Rainy nights pose even greater risks, said R Devi (48), another resident who lives with her 13-year-old daughter, 'Last week, during the rains, two snakes entered our home - they even crawled over my daughter. She had a fever for two days after that.' Devi's husband abandoned her when her daughter was just a year old. 'Despite being part of the enumeration process, I was excluded. The reason again - no husband, no house.' TNIE also found disabled individuals among those left pumps in the street have been removed, leaving residents with only an exposed pipe emerging near a shallow pit. They now collect metro water in unsanitary conditions. A daily wager Pangajam (66), who has a locomotor disability, lives with her son Raja, who has hearing impairment. They said they managed to pay Rs 10,000 as an initial contribution in September 2024 with the help of loans. 'We received the payment receipt and Form 2 for allotment, but when we ask officials, they keep telling us to wait,' she said. 'Since most houses were demolished and a graveyard is located just on the opposite side, we now sleep in the tenement's parking area because of insects and snakes.' There are two such families who, despite paying the initial beneficiary contribution, have been told to 'wait.' A senior official from the TNUHDB said, 'We will write to the Greater Chennai Corporation to include these left-out families in the Rs 1.5 lakh scheme. However, they noted there is currently no space available in the Moolakothalam tenement.' Meanwhile, the residents have demanded allotment to be made in Moolakothalam, as their workplace and source of livelihood are located here. Speaking to TNIE, GCC Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran assured, 'We will ensure that these families are included in the Rs 1.5 lakh scheme and are allotted houses.'
