The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Traders resent move to remove encroachments

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Monday, Sep 11, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Traders resent move to remove encroachments

Staff Reporter

They allege that they are being targeted

PHOTO: A. MURALITHARAN

ENRAGED: Vehicle of a Highways Department official being surrounded by traders protesting against the move to remove a few shops at Adhi Nagar, Tambaram, on Saturday.

TAMBARAM: Traders of small shops, on Saturday, protested against attempts made by the State Highways Department to evict a few shops in Tambaram, alleging that authorities were acting at the behest of certain influential sections.

Officials, who dropped the eviction for the time being, denied the allegations and said it was part of the routine encroachment clearance activity.

Officials of the Tiruvallur Division of the Department came to Adhi Nagar bus stop, East Tambaram, with an earth moving equipment and personnel from the nearby Selaiyur police station. There were about 15 shops near the bus stop and officials told owners that a few of them had to be demolished. When the shop owners protested, officials said they had to come to remove the encroachments following Madras High Court orders.

The shops owners alleged that officials were targeting them at the behest of owners of commercial complexes nearby. They recalled that small shops were in existence for about five decades now. Munu Adhi, former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and Tambaram MLA, had distributed three cents of land each to landless and homeless families and hence the area was named as Adhi Nagar.

Stating that the land on which the shops were built were classified as `grama natham,' owners of the small shops and residents of Adhi Nagar said the Highways Department did not have the powers to evict them.

Officials left the spot after telling shop owners and residents they were given some time to "sort out the issue".

When contacted, senior officials said the Court did not specifically direct them to remove the encroachments, but had left the matter to be handled by them.

Asked why only a few shops were being removed, while several other encroachments existed along the 21-km -long Velachery Main Road connecting Tambaram and Saidapet, the officials could not give a proper reply.

Traders said government agencies always acted at the behest of influential sections and wanted to know why encroachment eviction was being done "part by part".

The poor sections and owners of small shops were always the targets during encroachment eviction operations that were carried out only to help vested interests, they alleged.

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