Officials told DC that their focus is on the eviction of families along the river bank for now
Chennai Corparation one of the heritage buildings that will be decked with lights ahead of the Global Investors Meet (Photo: DC)
Chennai: The Chennai corporation will evict 995 families from the banks of the Cooum in Chintadripet on Wednesday as part of the Cooum restoration project in a move that will threaten their livelihood. The corporation will evict families residing in the Pallavan Nagar slum opposite the Madras Gymkhana Club in Chintadripet on Anna Salai, as they are deemed to have occupied the banks of the river Cooum.
Officials told DC that their focus is on the eviction of families along the river bank for now. “The whole slum is an encroachment but we will get to evicting the remaining dwellers later.
The first phase is to clear the banks so that we can construct the wall as proposed under the restoration plans,” said an official. The corporation tried evicting the families on Tuesday morning only to be pulled back by city police, who asked officials to defer the process for a day, citing inadequate security arrangements.
Speaking to DC, Dhanamani, a Pallavan Nagar resident, said that the fate of their children now hangs in the balance. “It is mid-year. Evicting us now will force our children to travel for around four or five hours up and down just to come to school. School opens at 8.30 am so my daughter has to leave home by at least 6 am and Perumbakkam does not have great bus or any other public transport connectivity,” she said. “I work as a domestic help and I am willing to die working to see my child getting educated so that she doesn’t have to live my life. What these people are about to do will kill my child’s life also,” she added.
Corporation officials replied that they will tie up with the MTC and make arrangements for the affected children of the families to receive subsidised bus passes for their travel. “We have been instructed specifically to ensure that the rehabilitation plan ensures that the evicted families will have access to all basic infrastructure and facilities,” said an official.
A teary-eyed Vijayachitra told DC that they will lose out on medical facilities like the availability of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital near their homes. “There is no hospital even for an emergency in Perumbakkam,” she said.
However, R. Geetha of the Unorganised Workers Federation, felt that the corporation is making a scapegoat out of the slum dwellers for its institutional failure to keep the river Cooum clean. “There is very little in terms of hope for these families. We will send a memorandum via e mail to the authorities asking them to stop the eviction,” she added.
Vanessa Peter of the Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities told DC that a “forced eviction”, such as this one, required authorities to follow the guidelines prescribed by the United Nations. “There should be clarity on whether or not a 90-day eviction notice period was given to the families. Even if that is the case, the state should also provide the families with legal aid to respond to the eviction notices. Because, after all, we are talking about the economically poorest in the city,” she said.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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