Chennai Times

Full Story at: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/from-tomorrow-no-chaat-on-chennais-marina-beach/48055-3.html?xml Chennai: Mustafa has been selling chaat on Chennai’s Marina Beach for around two years now. But Mustafa, a familiar face for regulars at the beach, will no longer be able to sell delicacies here. That is because the Chennai Corporation's deadline for encroachers to move out of the Marina Beach ends on Wednesday. “Since my childhood I have done this job. I don’t know anything else,” Mustafa said. The around 400 shops which have come up on the beach in the past two years are the ones being targeted but those which have been here for a long time will be spared. “This is being done only to make the beach more clean,” Chennai Mayor M Subramanian said. The state government and the Chennai Corporation are undertaking a major beach beautification drive. They plan to spend Rs 35 crore on making the beaches of Chennai clean and people friendly. So, soon people will be able to sit on b...

I had wondered whether we will really see the hoardings go in this city in my earlier post Looks like the government is serious after all, this time around the hoardings are really vacating the sky-scape of the city and as I reached office this morning there were gaps in the hoarding line beginning to show through which it was possible to see some clouds and the sky. The newspaper headlines today are agog about the drive. Kudos Corporation and the Chennai police for taking up this act. Would they also make the hoarding men to re-plant all the trees that they have chopped off over a period of time for that 'vantage' point? or is it expecting too much? Whatever may be the case, take your camera bags and start shooting the green chennai for once as long as it lasts. Being the eternal skeptic, my auto driver friend and adviser warned me that probably this drive would not last beyond a month, ' எல்லாம் helmet மாதிரி சீக்கிரமா மறந்து பொய்தும் ' says he.