The foremost request of the 1,000-odd residents of Sanganur is to have proper public toilet facilities in their area. They also do not have proper facilities for the disposal of garbage and suffer from frequent street light failures.

According to S. Gopinath, a resident of Sanganur, garbage in the streets had not been cleaned for four months.

“The officials do not really care to clean the sewers despite us raising several complaints. Only during the election times these are cleaned,” he said.

He further added that the poor maintenance of public toilet in the area is the main problem that the residents are facing. “There has been no proper maintenance of the public toilet. And also no proper timing is maintained in closing the public toilets,” he said.

A. Sivakumar, another resident, told that since the water pipes were not working properly, the residents frequently suffered from drinking water issues.

“During rainy season the drainage water overflows and the area stinks. Many people, including children, were affected by this,” he added.

According to S. Suresh, there are approximately 1,500 residents in the Zahir Hussain Street and most of them are suffering from drinking water woes.

“We get drinking water once in four days but the frequency is disturbed every now and then and during rainy season water gets easily mixed with sewage,” he said. He further added that the people of the area fear severe illness such as Dengue because of the mosquitoes that breed in dirty ponds nearby.

H. Hussain from Karunanithi Nagar said that there were not enough dustbins in the area. He further demanded that the Corporation waste collection truck should visit the area regularly. “Also street lights are poorly maintained and the drains are not properly cleaned in the area but when we approached the civic body officials, they said that the surface close to the drainage channels should be raised in order to let water in but the work never happened. When we put pressure, the officials laid a temporary drainage,” he said.

When the Covai Post approached the Councillor of the ward, K. Nagaraj regarding the issue, he did not respond properly.