The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Slum Board to issue fresh notices to all allottees

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 22, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Slum Board to issue fresh notices to all allottees

C. Jaishankar

Bid to speed up relocation for construction of new houses

RAMANATHAPURAM: The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) will serve fresh notices on all allottees living in its flats with identified structural instabilities in Chennai, Madurai and Salem to speed up the relocation process for constructing their new tenements, said Suba. Thangavelan, Minister for Slum Clearance.

This assumes significance in the wake of the collapse of a TNSCB block at Ukkadam in Coimbatore on Friday in which 13 people were killed and several others injured.

Speaking to The Hindu on Sunday over phone, the Minister said a decision had already been taken to demolish 2,862 houses located from Nochikuppam to Srinivasapuram in Chennai, which were more than 25 years old, and construct 7,320 new flats at the location. Similarly, 1000 houses at Rani Anna Nagar and 320 houses at D.S. Moorthy Nagar in Chennai would be demolished for constructing new houses.

Mr. Thangavelan said 242 houses at Therku Vasal and 1,020 houses at Avaniapuram and Ellis Nagar in Madurai would be constructed after demolishing the existing houses. In Salem, 220 houses would be demolished owing to their bad condition and new houses would be built for which Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had laid the foundation.

He said the TNSCB had issued notices to all the allottees to vacate their houses and told them that alternative dwelling arrangements would be provided to them till the construction was over. Terming the Coimbatore incident as “very unfortunate,” Mr. Thangavelan said he had spent almost a day with Rural Industries Minister Pongalur Palanisamy and top officials at the TNSCB flats in Ukkadam about 10 months ago and persuaded the dwellers to vacate the flats immediately considering the bad condition of the buildings. He visited the same location on October 2 and sought their cooperation for constructing new houses.

He said the Chief Minister was firm in his initiative to construct one lakh houses. He had instructed the Slum Clearance Ministry to identify houses that were more than 25 years old. He had convened a high-level meeting of top officials in Chennai on Monday to discuss the ways and means to speed up the relocation and construction process.

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