JJ Nagar slum illegally' evicted

Chennai: The Greater Chennai Corporation have been accused of “forcefully evicting” around 43 families residing along Nandambakkam canal in Manapakkam on February 4, even as activists accused the World Bank of keeping mum despite being informed of the development.

The evicted families from J.J. Nagar were promised housing alternative in Thirumazhisai. However, they have now been sent to Perumbakkam. The families were identified as Project Affected Families for implementation of the corporation’s Integrated Storm Water Drain (ISWD) project.

The ISWD project, being executed with World Bank funds under the Tamil Nadu Sustainable Urban Development Project (TNSUDP), had run into rough weather in March 2015 when the United States of America’s World Bank Executive Director (ED) expressed reservations on the project’s implementation.

In a public statement the ED said that the US was “concerned about the environmental and social impacts” of the project and urged the World Bank “to closely monitor the implementing agencies at the state and local levels to ensure that the consultation processes are sufficiently robust, that the letter and spirit of the resettlement policies are followed, and that communities are made aware of the grievance redress options.”

Vanessa Peter, policy researcher with Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), the organisation which prepared a fact-finding report exposing the Corporation’s inept Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) for the project, told DC that it is not under World Bank policy to carry out forced evictions.

“The urban settlement in J.J. Nagar is not listed in any of the existing state government’s eviction list. Neither does it find place in the “list of encroachers in Chennai Water Ways” of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board nor does the list of slums in the “Integrated Cooum River  Eco-Restoration Plan” (funded by the Chennai River Restoration Trust ) has J.J. Nagar in their list of slums to be evicted. So, under which scheme are the families evicted?” she asked.

IRCDUC researchers, who rushed to the scene of eviction when informed, claimed that they were told by corporation officials at the spot that the eviction was “ordered by the new commissioner of the Chennai corporation.”

Recently-appointed corporation commissioner Dr. B. Chandra Mohan could not be reached for comment.

Peter added that the eviction was carried out without prior notice and that the families were “threatened with the loss of any compensation or alternative housing if they failed to leave by sundown.”

When DC contacted World Bank India Task Head for TNSUDP, Raghu Kesavan, he said: “As far as I understand, the corporation did not conduct the eviction and the families were not evicted for the ISWD project.”