Tamil Nadu - Others   

A drive which drives a wedge between people and officials

L. Renganathan

Officials' even-handedness in encroachment removal questioned

KARUR: : Allegations of partiality or incorrect survey have been plaguing encroachment removal at several places in Karur district, though officials have tried to make a decent job of it. At some places, the action of lower-level officials left a lot to be desired.

The people, as at Noyyal on Wednesday, took to the streets to give vent to their grievances, mostly relating to partial attitude on the part of the authorities.

Following the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directive to the authorities to clear all encroachments within a stipulated time-frame, the authorities started clearing encroachments, particularly those on the highways and poromboke land.

Yet, at several places, trouble arose invariably, either over improper survey as claimed by the occupants or over selective removal of encroachments where the ``have-nots'' were always at the receiving end.

Questions have been raised over even-handedness of the officials in encroachment removal, especially in the Jawahar Bazar area in Karur municipal limits, Uppidamangalam special panchayat, Velayuthampalayam area, Nachalur in Nangavaram panchayat and on Wednesday at Noyyal among other places. While it is true that the displaced public cry foul, accusations of partiality on the part of the officials, who conducted the survey, and those, who cleared encroachments, are not altogether misplaced in certain cases.

In the Uppidamangalam special panchayat, officials had to eat a humble pie when they were forced to promise three cents of panchayat land each to three families whose dwelling units had encroached on ``odai poromboke'' were pulled down. Reason: Affected people pointed fingers at other encroachments yet to be evicted. Though the officials claimed that the grant of house site to the families was a one-time affair, it was more of a climb-down.

At Velayuthampalayam and Nachalur, reports of partial attitude on the part of the officials came in but officials moved in quickly to bring order.

In all cases, the people wanted a greater transparency in survey and determination of encroachments.

And now at Noyyal, when the authorities tried to leave an encroached building housing a nationalised bank untouched, the people were furious, stating that their houses were as important to them as the bank and that the authorities were partial towards the kin of ruling party leaders, even of the adjoining Erode district.

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