The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : "We only wanted to meet Chief Minister"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

"We only wanted to meet Chief Minister"

Staff Reporter

Slum residents were on their way to the Secretariat to submit a memorandum on lack of amenities

VICTIMS OF Violence: One of the buses that was damaged in clash between residents and police on Lattice Bridge Road, Adyar on Monday. (Below): Electricity Minister D. Jayakumar pacifying a group of agitated women at Kallukuttai. — Photos: K.V. Srinivasan

CHENNAI: Her head wrapped in a bandage, Anjala waded through the crowd towards the Minister who was talking to them.

"They rained their canes on us mercilessly," she complained to the Law and Information Technology Minister, D. Jayakumar. "All we wanted to do was to submit a memorandum to `amma' (Chief Minister Jayalalithaa)."

Her injury was the result of a skirmish between residents of Kallukuttai, a slum in Perungudi, and the police at Adyar on Monday.

Hundreds of the slum residents were on their way to the Secretariat in lorries to demand civic amenities when the police stopped them at Adyar.

Fifty-five-year-old Anjala has been living in Kallukuttai for nearly two decades. Several voices joined her in addressing their grievances.

"For more than 15 years, our colony does not even have electricity and water supply. Our hopes are kindled before every election when candidates seek votes. But after elections, they forget us," the women from Kallukuttai said in unison.

The residents said they had read news that the administration was considering evicting them.

The reports had alarmed them and they were on their way to Fort St. George to demand basic amenities for their colony. Among other demands were a hospital and a school for the children.

"Neither the Perungudi Panchayat authorities nor the elected representatives heeded our longstanding demand," said Srinivasan, another resident.

Representations sent

"We made several representations to them. That is why we decided to meet the Chief Minister herself and present a memorandum to her. Without any provocation, the police attacked us and more than 25 persons, including women, have been injured."

The Greater Chennai Police Commissioner, R. Nataraj, and several top police officials were at the spot.

"How can so many people go to the Secretariat," Mr. Nataraj asked. "They did not even have an appointment."

Officials of the Kancheepuram district administration said the colony had come up over the past two decades on a 350-acre piece of land in Perungudi owned by the Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE).

Basic amenities, especially electricity and water supply connections, could not be extended to them because the entire colony was an encroachment.

Kavitha Ramu, Revenue Divisional Officer, said the Collector had written to DoTE to decide on whether to hand over the land to the Slum Clearance Board to build tenements for the colony residents. About 9,000 families lived in the Kallukuttai slums.

The clash resulted in damage to a dozen Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses from the Adyar and Thiruvanmiyur depots.

Balu and Ellappana, driver and conductor of a bus plying on 5 E route, suffered injuries in the stone pelting, MTC sources at the depots said.

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