The Hindu : Residents protest against non-allotment of tenements

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 15, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Residents protest against non-allotment of tenements

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, FEB. 14 . About 40 residents living in slums alongside Swathanthra Nagar apartment complex off Greames Road in central Chennai were arrested today for protesting against non-allotment of vacant tenements of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB), and against "a move to allot them to outsiders." A

Tension began in the morning as "new allottees", allegedly belonging "to a neighbouring slum", began occupying the tenements. The Swathanthra Nagar slum dwellers claimed that the apartments should be allotted to them "as had been promised" by the Board.

"Now they (slum board officials) are trying to disown it," said M. Perumal, president, Slum Dwellers Welfare Association, who was among the detenus. "We have been living here for the past 25 years. Even before the construction of the apartment complex began, the Board had issued cards identifying us as the residents of this area. So if there are vacant apartments, they should allot it to us and not to outsiders," said another resident, T.S. Mani.

However, an official of the Board said the area comprised three land parcels belonging to the Education, the Public Works and the Police departments.

The Education and the PWD had handed over their portions of land (just over seven acres) for development to the Slum Clearance Board, while the Police department had not. In the available land, 576 tenements had been constructed. They were inaugurated in August 2003. In all, 490 families (living on the land taken over) had been allotted tenements. However 80 families living on the land belonging to the police department, which is the slum adjoining Swathanthra Nagar, could not be given allotment, the officials said.

Meanwhile, a set of pavement dwellers along Drivers Lane at Egmore was evicted by the civic and Board officials today and about 45 such families were rehabilitated in the available tenements of Swathanthra Nagar. "As the families here were living in precarious condition and facing risk to life and limb living on the margin of a congested lane, they had to be given priority. There was no political or any other consideration in allotting tenements to these poor families," a senior Board official said.

This enraged the 80 families, who resided on the Police department land. But their land was neither taken over nor disturbed. The Board was looking for alternative site for these families, the official added.

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