The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Residents, traders halt move to demolish shops, houses

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Friday, Jan 05, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Residents, traders halt move to demolish shops, houses

Staff Reporter

Officials say the move is to create access to road overbridge

AN ANGRY SHOWDOWN: Residents and traders of Kadapperi confront officials and police who came to demolish structures to create an approach road for a road overbridge near Tambaram on Thursday. — Photo: K. Manikandan

TAMBARAM : Residents and traders of Kadaperi near Tambaram on Thursday prevented a move by staff of the Highways and Revenue departments to pull down shops and houses built on `patta' land even as officials maintained that the move was aimed at making way for creating access to a road over-bridge under construction near the Tambaram Sanatorium railway station.

The officials of the two government agencies came to Kadaperi near the Tambaram taluk office on the Grand Southern Trunk Road and also deployed an earth-moving equipment to pull down the shops and houses. They told the residents and traders that as the structures came in the way of the bridge under construction to replace the railway level crossing (LC No. 29), they had to be demolished.

(The bridge is being built at a cost of Rs. 14.4 crore with a financial assistance from HUDCO as part of a gauge conversion work between Tambaram and Chennai Beach. Of the project cost, Rs. 5 crore is for civil works, while the rest is for land acquisition and other works).

As news about the information spread, traders, residents and activists of Kadaperi and East Tambaram came to the spot.

They pointed out to officials that the shops and houses were all built on approved land sanctioned by the Government in the 1960s to employees of the Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine. Soon after work on the bridge began, the residents of both Kadaperi and East Tambaram raised an objection to the design. When they were served notices asking them to hand over their land, they approached the High Court and the matter was still pending there.

Under such circumstances, it was unjust on the part of the Highways and Revenue departments to take steps to demolish the buildings, the residents said. However, the officials said all procedures had been followed before they decided to bring down the structures. Notices were served under Sections 15 (2) and 16 (2) of the Highways Act, they said, adding there were no objections either from the Madras High Court or from the Kancheepuram Collectorate.

Tambaram MLA S. R. Raja came to the spot and spoke to both sections. Then, it was decided to give one-month time and during the period, no action would be taken to demolish the buildings. Four occupants also signed on a document agreeing to hand over the land to the Government.

The residents were not convinced and sought to know why the Government agencies were not taking any action against owners of unauthorised structures.

Pointing out that the road leading to the Tambaram Sanatorium railway station was 50 feet wide, the residents said that close to 30 feet was encroached upon and government authorities were fully aware of it. The Kancheepuram Collectorate in 2005 instructed officials to remove these encroachments, but there was no action. ``By protecting a small group of vested interests and targeting those abiding by the law, the Government agencies have demonstrated their biased and partisan attitude,'' charged S. Ramesh, joint secretary of Tambaram Municipality's Twelfth Ward Residents Welfare Association, summing up the mood of people who had gathered in Kadaperi.

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