The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Residents resent official apathy to encroachments on waterbodies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 11, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Residents resent official apathy to encroachments on waterbodies

K. Manikandan

IN DANGER: The Kolathur lake facing the twin threats of encroachments and burning of garbage. — Photo : A. Muralitharan

TAMBARAM : A section of residents in Kovilambakkam village panchayat limits near here are sore over the State Government's inability to prevent encroachments in the Kolathur lake in the panchayat.

Land-grabbers were working overtime in the past few months, said members of civic groups. While requesting anonymity, they said that the number of people who stood up to protect the lake were outnumbered by those planning to usurp the lake. This created fear in them.

The panchayat is sandwiched between the Medavakkam Main Road and Velachery Main Road and is about 10 km from Tambaram. During the monsoon of 2005, the lake was filled to the brim and gushing waters from it consumed a couple of innocent lives. The government higher secondary school in the neighbourhood was filled with water, rendering it impossible for classes to be conducted for a couple of months that year, residents recalled.

However, construction activity has started in the lake and attempts to grab land were continuing, they said. Dumping and burning of garbage by workers of Kovilambakkam panchayat in the lake is another issue, the residents said.

Informed sources in the panchayat, however, say there is no alternative. In the absence of a land earmarked as a dumping yard, garbage has to be disposed of somewhere and for the time being they were using the lake, officials said. About five tonnes of garbage is generated every day in this panchayat with a population of nearly 25,000.

Residents said the lake's original expanse was more than 25 acres: it had shrunk to about 15 acres. New encroachments would shrink it further, they said. The State Government's proposal to issue pattas to people living in poromboke land for more than 10 years had emboldened land grabbers.

Officials of the Kancheepuram district administration said they were aware of new encroachments taking place in lakes. The Government's proposal to issue pattas would not be extended to encroachers in waterbodies. So far they had not issued notices to encroachers in Kolathur lake, the officials said. Action would be initiated at the appropriate time, they added.

Residents said the issue of housing and land for the poor was a pressing problem and it was not being addressed in right earnest. But encroaching on lakes and waterbodies would cause damage the fragile eco-system, apart from depriving people of a precious water source.

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