Chennai: In big houses, the flood-affected seek a home

As many as 4,124 flood-affected families who were relocated to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board’s settlement in Perumbakkam are a worried lot as they find it hard to fork out D 750 towards monthly
Water leakage at a house of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board’s settlement at Perumbakkam | ASHWIN PRASATH
Water leakage at a house of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board’s settlement at Perumbakkam | ASHWIN PRASATH

As many as 4,124 flood-affected families who were relocated to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board’s settlement in Perumbakkam are a worried lot as they find it hard to fork out D 750 towards monthly maintenance charges; the dole offered by the State government ended in March

CHENNAI: Many months after the December 2015 floodwaters forced them out of their huts and triggered their relocation, the tears of many of the affected families are yet to dry.
As many as 4,124 flood-affected families were relocated to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board’s settlement in Perumbakkam with a year-long carrot of `2,500 each month. Called the monthly sustenance allowance offered by the State government, the dole ended in March. They now have to fork out `750 as monthly maintenance charges.

Although some of the relocated residents claimed the sustenance allowance was disbursed irregularly, for the recipients it at least helped ease the burden of maintenance charge of `750 they had to pay each month for the seven-storeyed tenements. No longer.
At the end of a year after relocation, residents said they were right where they started — neither have they found reliable jobs nor did their houses feel like ‘home’.
According to a survey by Information and Resource Centre for Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), many of the residents in Perumbakkam make less than `300 a day.
“My husband drives an auto but none of the money he makes reaches home. I used to work as a domestic help but was forced to employ myself after coming here, selling karuvaadu (dried, salted fish),” said Kumari R, a resident of Perumbakkam.
“I don’t know how I can meet the maintenance charge and other expenditure from next month since they say they will no longer be giving us `2,500 a month,” she added.
Kumari was brought to Perumbakkam from Saidapet and now makes about `350-400 a day, just enough to scrape by with her two kids.

Activists claim that there was no transparency on how the TNSCB arrived at the figure of `750 as maintenance charge or what activities were being undertaken with that money. “Leaving aside affordability, there has to be transparency as to what they are paying towards,” said Vanessa Peter, policy researcher at IRCDUC.
Ever since she got relocated, Devi S takes three different buses to work in Saidapet. Her electricity bill has gone up since her present house is much bigger than her earlier shack. She has also lost her earlier job, which was her source of income. But it is the maintenance charge that has hit her where it hurts the most, she said.

“Who needs such a big house? We were happy there, paying nothing else except the electricity bill that would come to about     300,” she said.
While at their wits end on how to meet the maintenance charges for the coming months, residents also said that whatever ‘maintenance’ was being done was unsatisfactory, claiming that they had to sometimes pool in 10 from every house for generator fuel and that elevators, whichever was functioning, would be shut down at 10 pm every night.
Loganathan, a lift operator in one of the blocks, said, “There are two operators who work in shifts. The shift ends at 10 pm after which it is closed for use.”

In case of a medical emergency at night, residents of some blocks had no choice but to take the stairs.
Members of the residents association in AE block that was formed and registered in 2015, claimed that the Board had promised to hand over maintenance activities to them. That has not happened yet, hence the monthly maintenance charges.
“All maintenance activities are given to contractors even a year after they promised that the association could take over matters with our own people,” said Nallathambi A who heads the residents association in AE block.

Asked if the residents of Perumbakkam were in a position to get by without the sustenance amount, a senior slum board official told Express that it was essential for the residents to learn to stand on their own legs without ‘depending on the government’.
“We are also conducting numerous training programmes to help them maximise their income,” the official said.

Another official added that the board sanctions `10,000 per entrepreneur for these residents to take up small businesses following assessment by slum board officials and that maintenance activities had been handed over to many of the residents associations.

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