Vacant land a nightmare for locals, fertile ground for rodents and mosquitoes

CHENNAI: Lying in the heart of the city, it is worth crores of rupees. But for the neighbours, this vacant piece of land near Gandhi Irwin bridge before the Chindatripet fish market is a nightmare — a garbage pile, an open toilet, an ideal breeding place for mosquitoes and a hub for drinkers at night.

The city corporation has placed bins there, but the garbage is almost always thrown on the land. When Express visited the place, even city corporation workers were seen dumping non-recyclable wastes on the ground, taking only wastes such as paper and bottles to the nearby mart to be sold. Making matters worse, auto drivers nearby use the land as a toilet. Over the years, the garbage there has become an ideal home for rodents, mosquitoes and stray dogs.

If this is not enough, at night the place becomes a haunt for drinkers, and even those using narcotic substances, allege locals. Only two days ago, someone broke the window pane of the hospital nearby with a stone, said a worker.

“There are hundreds who live in the neighbourhood. With dengue at its peak, we recommend all our patients to clear their houses and ensure there is no space for mosquito breeding. But this open land gives more opportunity than all the nearby houses combined,” says Zakir, who used to live there till a year ago. “A private party owns this land, but the public always throw the waste there despite dustbins being placed,” said Manjula, who runs a textile shop next to the land.

This has had a serious impact on the businesses nearby, whose efforts to resolve the issue have failed so far. “The mosquito menace has increased in recent days, especially with people using it as a toilet,” says Murugesh S, whose shop is next to the empty plot. After being asked by its customers to do something about the land, Hotel Venkateswara even considered buying it.

“We had an idea to buy the land and make it a parking lot, but we were told that it belonged to an influential person — a judge, we were told,” said a person from the hotel. According to waste management experts and activists, property owners must fence off their plots to prevent them from being misused or becoming garbage dumps.

A senior corporation official admitted that the law has provisions for preventing dumping  of garbage in vacant sites. The city health officer can serve a notice, and if the owner fails to take action, the civic body can clean the site and recover the cost and more from the land owner.

“It is very difficult for us to trace the owner, as the documents are with the revenue department. But we will make sure the place is cleaned, even though it is a private land,” said NA Senthilnathan, City Health Officer, assuring that a notice would be sent to the land owner regarding the condition of the vacant land.
“If the owner of the land raised a fence, he can escape notice and fine for garbage being dumped there. If people dump garbage in spite of the fence, the owner will be helpless,” the official said.