CHENNAI: On the pretext of developmental activities, the state government continues to snatch land from the urban poor, compromising their right to livelihood, said a panel of activists and experts in urban development during a discussion organised by NGO Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group on Saturday.
The panel of three experts discussed varied topics ranging from the ramifications of forced evictions of slums, livelihood issues connected with this resettlement and the government’s agenda behind proposed development plans in that space.
“Every piece of land in the city, not just those coming near road, rail and waterbodies, is desired by the government for development. The government has brought the urban poor under the grand illusion of owning land after the eviction,” said Priti Narayan, researcher and activist, who spoke about the government’s alleged agenda behind slum resettlement.
“Declared and undeclared slums put together only occupy three per cent of land in Chennai. But still forced evictions to happen where people are shifted to resettlement colonies in far-flung locations. In Kannagi Nagar, only 50 per cent are actually relocated from slums. The rest came back to the city due to lack of facilities there,” she added.
Bhuvaneshwari Raman, professor at OP Jindal University, pointed out the developmental patterns seen in extended areas such as the Sriperumbadur-Oragadam stretch. She explained how the state-given sources of irrigation for farmers are willfully destroyed by the government to make them give up their land to build luxury gated community villas here.