A change in name of R 11 Rayala Nagar Police Station located in Ramapuram — that is one of the requests the Ramapuram Social Welfare Federation placed before Maduravoyal MLA K Ganapathy at a meet in July.
The Federation representing around 60 residents associations wants the police station to be renamed Ramapuram Police Station as it caters to whole of Ramapuram and not just Rayala Nagar.
While there are many residential colonies in Rampuram, why should the police station be named after Rayala Nagar? Why wasn’t any other colony considered for the honour?
P V Kishore, president, Rayala Nagar Welfare Association and vice-president of Ramapuram Social Welfare Federation, explains: “The answer is simple and straight. This police station was established sometime in the early 1980s, when Rayala Nagar was one of the more popular colonies in Ramapuram. In fact, I would say it was the first colony to be developed in Ramapuram. The police station therefore carried its name. Now, many other residential colonies have come up and hence, the call for a change in a name.”
Kishore throws light on the fascinating story of how Rayala Nagar was born and developed. According to him, the neighbourhood is named after Rayala Corporation, the manufacturer of Halda typewriters.
“I was an employee of the Corporation working in the assembly line. The employees’ union of Rayala Corporation identified the land in Ramapuram in 1974. It was then an orchard. The company bought the land from the real-estate developer, got it registered and demarcated the plots. Allottees were identified by the draw of lots. The value of each plot was treated as an interest-free loan, extended to the allottees. It was a kind and noble gesture from our company for which we are grateful to this day. This amount was recovered from the monthly salaries. In its heyday, which lasted till the mid-1980s, the company’s typewriters were in high demand. In addition to Tamil and English, typewriters in other Indian languages were manufactured, which placed Governments of other States among Halda’s prominent clients. To meet the increasing demand, workers had to be engaged beyond the normal working. That entailed doubled the wages. The union was also fine with it because that would would ease the repayment of the housing loan. It was a win-win situation for both the company and the employees. Hence, we chose to forgo our weekly two days off. We worked on all Saturdays and one Sunday every month,” says 74-year-old Kishore, who opted for the voluntary retirement scheme in 1990 offered by the company when it was going through a decline due to the advent of computers.
Even though the land was bought in the second half of 1970s, the allottees started moving in only in the late 1980s.
“We did not build the houses immediately, mainly because the place was rife with bootlegging. While some sold their properties for a good price others waited hoping the situation would change in the years to come. And that happened,” says Kishore who built his house in 1984.
In 1985, Rayala Nagar Residents Welfare Association was formed.
“The first issue we took up was with the erstwhile Pallavan Transport Corporation (now the Metropolitan Transport Corporation). We wanted a bus that would ply from Ramapuram to Broadway. That is how 18E route was introduced, mainly for the benefit of Rayala’s employees. The industry was at Guindy. It was operated during the rush hour. However, the service has become erratic and unreliable in the past few years. Next, we took steps to bring Aaavin’s milk booth which is not functioning now. We used to go to K.K. Nagar or Virugambakkam to buy groceries. Otherwise, we buy at Saidpet while returning from our office in Guindy. The locality witnessed rapid development after Ramapuram was merged with the Greater Chennai Corporation in 2012,” says Kishore.
The Association also approached the court to ensure that land meant for the construction of a park was used only for that purpose.
“I filed a petition at the Madras High Court requesting it to order the developer to hand over the OSR land to the government. The case went on for 14 years and a judgement in our favour was delivered in 2014,” says Kishore.
Of the 220 to 230 employees who bought plots only 20 employee families are living here now, says Kishore.