CHENNAI: Nearly 500 families at Vyasarpadi fear that they are being driven out of their homes and the houses built by them with their life’s savings will be demolished, all by citing petitions of people many of whom are either dead or not a resident of the area at all.
The families are residing for generations and decades now at Sathya Nagar and Sanjay Nagar, a densely populated residential area at Vyasarpadi.
Almost all of them are panicked since Monday when a team of officials from Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board came to the localities and made an oral announcement that all residents should pack up their belongings and leave as soon as possible. The officials told the residents that new multi-storey tenements would be built in the area and each resident will get a tenement in that.
“The TNSCB showed us a petition, allegedly submitted by residents from the locality, requesting for better housing as we were living in pathetic conditions. When I read the petition, I was shocked to find the first name on the petition, among several others, was dead. Majority of people on the list, don’t even live here,” said Sajeesh Kumar, a resident.
On Tuesday, several residents did not go for work. They instead gathered on the streets discussing the issue. They signed a joint petition and two of the residents submitted it in the district collector’s office.
The slum clearance board has recently built 950 tenements in an adjacent area as a part of the Moorthy Nagar Phase 1 project.
The board has proposed to build a complex of 972 tenements in over three acres, as a part of the second phase in the area where now Sathya and Sanjay Nagar stands. Hence the residents are being told to vacate so that the houses can be razed and construction for multi-storey tenements could begin.
But what puzzled the residents was the petition showed by the officials which claimed that it was the residents themselves who sought demolition of the houses for the new tenements.“We have invested a lot in our houses over the years. We used our life savings to upgrade to a house at a cost of Rs 13 lakhs to build. Now, the government is trying to demolish it.
We are living in a comfortable neighbourhood, we do not need new housing,” said Ramesh Kumar, another resident stating that moving them to housing board tenements would be to retrograde. Many of the residents have been living in the locality for over four decades now.
After a major fire accident in 1999 in the area, the State government then had built them asbestos-roofed houses and over a period of time, the residents have improved their owns by themselves. Most residents said they were paying property tax to Chennai Corporation, have house-to-house Metrowater and electricity connections. The area has concrete roads.
“I have lived here since 1980. We applied for patta in 1988. People living in neighbouring areas, got patta, because they had political backing. But we were left out,” said K Shridharan, one of the oldest residents in the area. He rued that they cannot be discriminated for lack of political backing.
Sajeesh further added that the soil is not fit for construction of large multi-storey buildings.
“The board had arranged for soil testing and the results were not very promising. They are still going ahead with the project,” he alleged.
When contacted by Express, the board officials, however, refused to divulge the results of the soil test.
“The residents will not be evicted. We will give them a house in the same complex we are building under housing for all scheme. They are protesting without any reason,” said a senior official from the board.
He further said that the land belongs to the board and the residents have no choice but to pack their bags and leave.
“There are less than 500 families living in the area now. Once we finish the project, 450 more families can live in the same space,” he said.
When queried on the alleged bogus signatures in the petition claimed to have been signed by the residents, the official denied it. But did not comment on details on when such a petition was filed by the residents seeking better houses.
Unfit land?
A resident says the soil at the area is not fit for building large multi-storey buildings. He says the Board had tested the soil and the results were not very promising.
The officials, however, refused to divulge the results of the soil test.