The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : "Were officials sleeping for the past 16 years?"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 24, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

"Were officials sleeping for the past 16 years?"

K. Manikandan

Residents livid at demolitions; rehabilitation promise unkept

TAMBARAM: The demolition of houses and huts within a 50-acre piece of land purchased by the Tambaram, Pallavaram and Alandur Municipalities for setting up a compost yard on Friday morning left most residents angry, some shattered and the rest wondering where they will go.

The land belonged to the Prisons Department, which had planned to construct an open air prison. The three municipalities purchased the land at a cost of Rs. 1.2 crore, shelling out Rs. 34.7 lakh each and plan to spend more in coming months on infrastructure.

Soon after work started on the construction of a compound wall around the site last year, residents staged a protest. However, their fears of displacement were allayed and they were assured that work would start again only after they were properly rehabilitated. Even as the officials were hopeful of resuming work, the Defence Ministry objected to it, as an open yard would attract birds to the site close to the Indian Air Force Station in Tambaram and put aircraft at risk.

Issue sorted out

A senior official of the Department of Municipal Administration said that issue was sorted out and the Defence Ministry agreed to the proposal after imposing conditions. However, work could not start unless the houses and huts were cleared.

Residents blamed the Village Administrative Officers, their colleagues at the Revenue Department and other senior officials of the Kancheepuram district administration for Friday's eviction and wondered what they were doing all this while. "Were the officials sleeping for the past 16 years?" asked P. Veeramani, vice president of the Tamil Nadu Association for welfare of Physically Handicapped.

Residents, particularly the youth, were annoyed with the elected representatives, Revenue Department officials, local panchayat and other Government agencies. "The officials specifically told us that eviction would take place only after our rehabilitation," said D. Babu.

Rude shock

He wanted to know why the Government gave them voting rights, ration cards, individual water connections and power supply if the residents had occupied Government land illegally. He said they expected officials to identify an alternate place, and that the eviction on Friday came as a rude shock.

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