Chennai: Social activist ‘Traffic’ K R Ramaswamy, who is well known for bringing down the banner culture in Tamilnadu and had filed several PILs in the court on several issued concerning the safety of the public, died here on Tuesday night. He was 87.
Ramaswamy was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General hospital about ten days back due to age-old related ailments. He breathed his last at 7.45 pm.
He has filed numerous PILs in the Madras High Court on several issues concerning the public, be it road rule violations, pavement and road encroachments, illegal erection of flexboards and banners, among others.
He is the only activist who daringly tore down the posters and banners of political leaders, be it late leaders J Jayalalithaa or M karunandhi–in their own dens.
He was a nightmare for encroachers, be it big or small. The owners of illegal buildings bore the brunt of his PILs on unauthorised buildings that led to a litany of judgments and enforcement of correct rules.
His efforts, resulted in big showrooms at the shopping hub of T Nagar spending crores of rupees to modify their buildings and introducing safety norms.