Relief for Chennaites as tanker lorries call off strike

The already water-starved city had a shock when the private water tanker lorries called for a strike from May 27, following the crackdown on tankers tapping groundwater from the city’s outskirts.  The Tamil Nadu Private Water Tanker Lorry Owners’ Association has now decided to postpone the strike after talks with the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department.

The 4500 private tankers draw water from the farmlands in Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts. Taking advantage of the acute water crisis, the association is also putting pressure on the government to grant them permanent licenses to draw water from farmland and also exempt them from paying tolls.

Source: The Hindu| The Times of India

Deadline extended for registration of tenancy agreement

The Tamilnadu Government has extended the timeline for registration under the Tenancy act by another four months. The regulation that came into force this February makes registration of rental and lease agreements compulsory.

In the absence of registration, owners and tenants will not be able to legally resolve any dispute relating to rented properties.

Source: The New Indian Express

Security to be beefed up at MRTS

Southern Railway has decided to outsource the security at all MRTS stations to private agencies. Lack of manpower is cited to be the reason for the move.

There are 18 MRTS stations in the city and out of these 14 are elevated. The Railway Protection Force, Chennai division, has a strength of 1,300 and out of this, 100 are allocated for MRTS security.

Source: The Hindu

City to get 50 new AC buses

The Tamilnadu Government has finalised tenders to procure 50 new AC buses at a cost of Rs.13 crore. The air-conditioned Volvo buses that were launched with much fanfare in 2015 were slowly taken off road citing maintenance issues, though there was patronage for it.

In the meanwhile, the Government is again planning to launch new AC buses which this time will have broader seats and better cooling capacity.

Source: The Times of India

Chennai Corporation to auction abandoned vehicles

Chennai Corporation is all set to auction 2480 vehicles, the majority of which are two-wheelers that lay abandoned in the streets of Chennai.

The corporation along with the traffic police had announced last year that vehicles that are abandoned along the roads and footpath will be confiscated and sold as scrap. Accordingly, 7800 vehicles were auctioned last year and over 2000 vehicles are set to be sold in the coming weeks.

The auctioned vehicles last year fetched the civic body a sum of around 2 crores.

Source: The Times of India

[Compiled by Sandhya Raju]