Choked drains, unmotorable roads bane of Pillargudi street residents

Chittoor: Pillargudi street in Chittoor Municipal Corporation, which falls under 7th division, is being plagued by several number of unattended grievances. Over 230 families are living in the street of them 120 families are from Modaliar community. No development has been taken place in the street in the last two decades. The lanes are very narrow and unmotorable for vehicle riders.

The residents of street have given number of representations to the concerned higher-ups for cleaning the choked drains and to supply safe drinking water but in vain. The drains in the street are clogged with sewage and drainage water is overflowing on the street causing untold miseries to residents. As drains overflowing, it is acting as breeding ground for mosquitoes and causing viral fevers among residents.

"We are very poor. My house is in a dilapidated condition. I am remitting the property tax and power bills regularly. My efforts to get old age pension is yet to be materialised. Though I had submitted application for house, the government is yet to take a decision on it," Karunakaran said.

Ponnai, the wife of Karunakaran, slammed the secretariat staff for not caring about problems in the area. "The drains are never cleaned for several months by saniation staff. Foul smell emanates from the stagnated drains. We used to face sleepless nights due to mosquito bites,'' laments Lakshminarayana, a resident of Pillargudi street.

One S Karimullah, an handicapped person decried that he did not get the old age pension for several years. "The Municipal authorities are least bothered to go through my claim. There is no coordination between the staff of CMC and Sachivalayam in resolving the public issues," he pointed out.

Many residents in the street have complained that no sanitary staff from CMC used to collect wastage from their houses and clean the drains regularly despite lodging complaints with the civic chief. Drinking water is being purchased by them from private tankers and the roads are in bad shape.