The curious cases of broken streetlights, missing bins

Times of India: Chennai: Thursday, August 20, 2015.

From manhole covers to bollards and garbage bins to public toilets, choic es are aplenty for vandals and thieves in Chennai. And over the past few years, the city has become a fertile ground for them to indulge in their favourite pastime. Unfortunately , civic officials despite being aware that these cases are on the rise haven't been able to curb this phenomenon as they are yet to map the areas from where the properties are getting vandalised. In response to an RTI application filed by TOI, the city corporation said as many as 37 metallic garbage bins were stolen from Teynampet zone over the past five years. The theft cases have increased from eight in 2010-11 to 12 in 2011-12 and 13 in 2014-15. This year, so far, four bins have gone missing, the reply said.

Last December, a modular public toilet worth `80,000 vanished from Tondairpet overnight and it's yet to be traced. Similarly, several flower pots went missing few weeks after they were placed on medians on Sardar Patel Road. Recently , nearly 50 bollards -short posts that separate foot paths from a road's carriageway installed in Egmore were stolen and the culprits are still at large waiting for their next target.

Corporation officials say they are helpless. "Most of these thefts happen in midnight and it is difficult to trace the t people who are behind the vandalism. In t north Chennai, several street lights were damaged, especially by drunks. Some of them even steal metal rods from the me dians and selling them to scrap dealers," said a corporation official.

Ravi Damodaran, founder Citizen for Safe Roads, said nearly 25 `no parking' boards in and around Nungambakkam have been missing for the past one year.

Experts say the civic body should emulate the `broken windows theory', which proposes that fixing problems when they are small is the best strategy to prevent vandalism. For instance, if a broken window is repaired as soon as possible, then vandals will have fewer tendencies to break more or cause further damage.