The status of road in Perumbakkam

pictures by Saicharan Mohan

Greetings to all readers of iCurion!

If ISRO needs to test its Moon rovers, the perfect place is the roads in Perumbakkam.  If you had ever travelled in the roads of Perumbakkam you would accept with my suggestion as the potholes there are of the size of craters in moon. That is how bad the condition of these roads. And now few private companies are digging the roads for gas pipelines, internet, electricity and etc. I am not denying that these utilities are important, but don’t they need to be closing the pits properly and do the work without disturbing people. This surely adds misery to the life of the people of Perumbakkam.

The road has been like this for at least one and half year, just not now. Many schools and many residential areas are in the neighborhood so you can’t leave the place just like that without a decent road. Sometimes the wheel feels almost submerged in water, so people lose balance and fall down. But here the funny thing is the village president’s party is also sticking their posters near the same place, if they want to be popular among people, they have to respect people and do good things to them. Even in my personal experience when my mother was bringing me back from school to home in our scooter, due to a pothole filled with rainwater, we slipped and fell. I had some minor injuries, but my mother had a fracture which took a surgery and almost six months to heal. I don’t understand how and why adult citizens are put up with this terrible condition of the road.

Why even affected people don’t come together and fight this injustice by putting petitions and protests so that our road will be a little more decent and so that people can walk or drive on this road without being scared that they will get hurt. And what about the government, it is barely listening to the people who even put petitions and do protests bravely. Then what is the meaning of people paying tax to the government. I heard that the highway authority took over this road but did nothing but watched people getting accidents. Sometime back the government at least did minor fixing of the roads but now the government is doing nothing but simply watching people getting angry at them. Also, the size of the road in not at all enough. Can’t it be broader, as a large number of vehicles go in this road. Is this hell or a normal road? how can it be safe for school children who walk to the school? Even the road near the government schools is bad and unsafe. Now it is November, and it is getting rainy. People get slipped because of swimming pool sized gaps in the roadway.

To think about it, if the government is incorrupt and democratic, by this time they would have addressed the people’s issues and could have built better roads, or they would have maintained the roads well. But they are not addressing these issues even when some people are trying to put petitions. Once a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus said change is the only constant thing in the world, but in Perumbakkam it seems peoples’ misery is the only constant and the government and the roads will never change for good.

So, elders, good Samaritans and people in power basically all the general people, please do take actions of organizing protests against the condition of the road. And please do comment your ideas about your ideas on how to make the government improve the road.