Corporation officials greed raises a stinker

CHENNAI: They were meant to be a boon to the differently-abled, but a Chennai Corporation official tried to make a killing out of them. Four mobile toilet units, worth Rs 18 lakh, were donated by the Rotary Club of East R A Puram on June 1 in the presence of Mayor M Subramanian. Each unit has 10 toilet seats, which have been made keeping in mind the needs of the differently-abled, and can be hired free of cost.However, on Friday, when Simmachandran, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Federation of Physically Handicapped Association, approached Babu Rajendran, assistant engineer with the mechanical department of the Corporation to hire two mobile units for a swayamvaram of the differently-abled  to be conducted by the Federation on Sunday in Gopalapuram, he was asked to dig deep into his pockets to avail of the free service.“Since a large congregation of differently-abled persons will come together at the same place, we thought of hiring these mobile toilet units from the Corporation. When I asked Babu Rajendran, he asked us to pay not only Rs 500 for each unit, but also a caution deposit of Rs Rs 4,000 to hire two units. When I asked him if the Rs 500 is mandatory and wondered about the necessity of a caution deposit, he retorted that that’s how things are done in the Corporation,” Simmachandran said.The Federation’s general secretary was also reportedly asked by the official to pay Rs 2,000 for each unit as towing charges, and another Rs 2,000 to clean the toilets.An infuriated Simmachandran tried to meet the Mayor and Commissioner Karthikeyan. He was initially denied an audience, but later after the intervention of a former president of Rotary Club of East R A Puram, Selvam Alagappan, the Commissioner sounded out a warning to the errant official.“When this was brought to our notice, we felt bad as the idea is to benefit the public free of cost. Collecting a nominal Rs 500 for each unit is fine. But to charge Rs 12,000 for two units is not fair. We are going to represent this in writing to the commissioner’s office on Saturday,” said Alagappan.A bitter Simmachandran, rued, “The Corporation mayor and commissioner were awarded for their services to the differently-abled in Delhi on World Disability Day this year.” “However, the reality is completely different.”