Unexpected response to a petition

My relative, who is a senior citizen and resides in the Chennai suburbs, received a call recently. The caller who identified himself as a Sub-inspector of Police from a different district in Tamil Nadu, stated that he was calling based on the note he received from the Chief Minister’s office in Chennai, regarding a petition that my relative had submitted. The official did not then provide further details. Since my relative was not at home when the call came, he told the official to call later.

The very next day, the official called my relative and informed that he was from the crime branch and that he was making an enquiry. Since the official had not been given any details by the CM’s office, he sought to know from my relative as to what the petition was all about.

My relative told him that it was a petition regarding property tax anomalies with the Corporation in his locality. Since he could not get ‘relief’ from the Corporation, he had submitted the same at the Ungaludan Stalin Scheme camp held in his locality in August 2025, in the fond hope that he would get a favourable resolution. Since there was no communication forthcoming, my relative stepped up the pressure by sending periodical reminders to the CM’s office and other officials. At one stage, he stopped sending the reminders as there was no response.

It was, therefore, quite a shock when he received the call, that too from a most unexpected source! The SI was so nice that after getting to know that the petition dealt with property tax, he stated that as it had nothing to do with him, he would close the issue by writing suitably to the CM’s office.

Well, why did the CM’s office send the communication to a police officer posed in the crime branch, that too at a place afar from the location of my relative, to enquire about the petition which dealt with a property tax? My relative would have felt happy had the call come from the revenue department of the Corporation. Could it be a case of a deliberate attempt at scaring the petitioners who write to the CM’s office on genuine issues seeking its help? Or is it a case of unleashing the police on a gullible public to silence them? The action of the CM’s office in referring the issue to the police department which has no jurisdiction whatsoever on the matter, seems to smack of an ulterior motive and unbecoming of the functioning of the office.

VS Jayaraman

ramvsj@gmail.com

Discipline a must for road users

I am particularly interested in road users’ discipline in our city. I have noticed time and again that our citizens disregard with impunity the traffic signs, lines and signals. This is applicable to road users of all ages, sex and education levels.

I personally believe that though the roads are far from being ideal, with the plethora of potholes, dividers, speed bumps, they are what we have. It is our intelligent use of the roads which will ensure safe and secure journeys for all the citizens every day.

The disregard for the use of safety devices like the ORS (Occupant restraining system a.k.a seat belt), is a specific case to be understood. Though the four-wheelers today are equipped with warning tones if the belts are not buckled, these are being ridiculed by a host of drivers who engage the belt before sitting in the vehicle. As a result, the warning is silenced, but the occupant is far from safe. It seems that the rule is to be followed only if the police force is in sight. This attitude is to be strictly avoided and unless the car owners/occupiers take the onus of the importance of their lives in their hands, no number of laws and rules can help us.

Discipline is to be instilled in the populace from an early age, yet despite the efforts of the police, this compliance is far from satisfactory.

Two-wheeler riders and pedestrians are from another planet, it seems, if one is to observe them using the city roads. Riders, with an apology of ‘helmet wearing’, sans buckle or worse still with helmets on their laps or handles, are a common sight at every road or lane. They disregard traffic signboards, flout every known rule time and again, and their families will have to pay the price whenever an accident takes place. Discipline on the roads is the mantra which needs to be instilled in the minds of the two-wheeler riders, day in and day out.

The traffic scene is indeed in urgent need of attention, where fines and challans alone may not solve the problem; discipline and a value for one’s life might work.

Rajan Sekri

A-11, SIDCO Industrial Estate,

Villivakkam, Chennai 600 049

An Evening in VP Hall

It was exciting to see the print edition of Madras Musing’s first issue this year wholly devoted to the Victoria Public Hall. It gleefully proclaimed ‘The City gets back its Town Hall’ on Page 1. The rest of the page had a visual of the red-tiled facade of the building. The centrespread was filled with pictures too. The story of the VP Hall and the stories around it filled up the rest of the pages. So, my wife and I were doubly pleased to go there to participate in an event this March 13th. Thanks to Trump’s America and Israel going to war with Iran and the city agog with news of a run on the petrol bunks, we took the Metro to the venue. Frankly with the Metro station at about 200 feet from my place and likewise the Central Metro about 200 feet (if you take the right exit) from the venue, it made perfect sense not to use private transport just for two. Emerging from the Metro, we were directed by a woman fruit vendor to the Hall via the adjacent Ripon Buildings. To put it in context, VPH was opened in 1888 and Ripon Buildings in 1913. If it was a pleasure to bounce along the broad pavements lined with tree saplings to the venue, the grounds of the VP Hall were a revelation – clean and green all round and the exterior lit up. Standing there afforded a view of Madras Central inaugurated in 1873 and the much recent MMC building where the Madras Central Prison once existed. Incidentally, the old prison was opened in 1837. I was not able to identify, a mosque-like white building opposite the VPH and a red-tiled small structure diagonally opposite the Hall. (These are respectively Siddique Serai and the Raja Sir Savalai Ramaswami Mudaliar Choultry – The Editor.)

Under the aegis of Past Forward, and sponsored by HCL Concerts with Coromandel International as the associate sponsor, Madras’ historian and chronicler Sriram V (aided by an AV presentation) accompanied on the stage by singer Bharat Sundar (on cues from the speaker, he masterfully eased into song) and Vigneswar on the keyboard took us through the eras of Theatre to Talkies with lots of references to the Victoria Hall itself and its links with ­Suguna Vilasa Sabha. A passionate story-teller, ­Sriram shared lots of info on the topic of the evening including on many notables of yesteryear chiefly Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar.

Jyothi Sethupathi, the great grand-daughter of Namperumal Chetty (he built VPH) was present on March 13 and was introduced to the audience by Sriram. Of note, the performing space where the event happened hosted its first play in 1891 which lasted six hours ending at 3.30 a.m. Past Forward is going to curate more events at VPH during the coming year.

T.K. Srinivas Chari