Poonga View Residents Welfare Association: when they christened their RWA thus, residents of TP Scheme Road in Mandaveli had in mind categories of “views” diametrically opposite to what they are being treated to.

TP Scheme Road is 300 metres long, and one side of the road has a wall, one bounding the Adyar Poonga. It means there are habitations on only one side of the road. A careless count puts it at 50; sparsely populated, one would expect serenity. And nature rearing up on one side meant the eyes had a pleasant object to focus on. 

Here are the categories of “views” they are actually treated to on a daily basis, as listed by members of Poonga View RWA. Open urination along the wall. Unauthorised parking along the wall. When the TASMAC outlet was on Venkatakrishna Road in Mandaveli, tipplers would turn the space by the wall into an open bar, and some of them would make it a “bed” for a stupefied, post-alcohol slumber. As reported by residents, there would also be other forms of substance abuse behind the illegally parked vehicles, some of them abandoned. Couples would also arrive in cars. Besides, the trees in the Poonga that were expected to give them a pleasant view, would ironically add to the problems. The leaves they shed, along with those shrugged off by the avenue trees on TP Scheme Road, would accumulate by the side of the wall, as parked vehicles would mean Urbaser Summet workers cannot clear the putrefying muck. There would be garbage as well, according to a member of the RWA. Reptiles in the Poonga out for a stroll, well crawl, feel at home in this muck.

This road falls in ward 171, Zone 13, and these residents have taken the matter to the councillor, and earlier even escalated it to the previous MLA. 

And they are still waiting for all these problems to be resolved. 

This is how a member of Poonga View RWA puts it: “This has been the scene for many years with no action taken by the government even after many complaints to Greater Chennai Corporation. They keep pointing at the other officials for not doing their job. We want to bring this to the notice of CM Vijay so that there will be some action by the new government that could solve our long-pending problems.”