CHENNAI: Repatriates and members of low-income groups stand to lose their houses that they had built for themselves over 40 years in Assisi Nagar, Madhavaram with the Chennai Metro Phase-II project set to wipe out their houses. Assisi Nagar that houses 336 families was purchased by a social service organisation in 1971 exclusively to be given to Sri Lankan and Burmese repatriates without house sites, free of cost and to people belonging to low-income groups at a low price.
Almost all residents of the area, many of whom are now third-generation residents, once belonged to one of these two groups, are struggling to climb the socioeconomic ladder. Today, however, the area is home to many multi-storeyed houses after generations of additions and renovations to the once modest homes.
While residents of Assisi Nagar have resisted the acquisition of their lands for the project time and again since they were notified, residents said that they’ve received no official response yet.
“We have been fighting for the exclusion of our locality from the project but we have not received any official response yet,” said Sudish R of the Assisi Nagar Welfare Association.Sudish’s father, for instance, was a cook with the Port Trust of India, when he pooled in his life savings to purchase the 1,800 square feet of land for `3,150 in 1983, where his house is now built.CMRL’s socio-economic report an eyewash? While 89 houses in Assisi Nagar have already been issued notices for land acquisition and a total of 151 families are expected to lose their houses to the Chennai Metro Phase-II project, the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) by the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) had claimed that no residential structure in the locality was being affected under the project.
The final report, made by Rites, a government of India consultancy for the CMRL, which was in turn submitted to the Japan International Cooperation Agency which is currently to fund 50 per cent of the Metro Rail Phase-II, stated that only three commercial structures, no residential structures and one residential cum commercial structure would stand to be affected by the project in the Assisi Nagar station.
However, a land plan schedule for the Madhavaram depot, sourced from the CMRL, showed that at least 89 houses are to be affected in Assisi Nagar for the depot under the Metro Rail project.
The report, that was put together last year, stated that the study was conducted in the area ‘along the Metro corridors and depot locations which have been decided by the CMRL’ before publishing the above results but made no mention of the 89 houses.Amidst CMRL’s claims that most of the land used for the project would be government lands, residents of Assisi Nagar said that ironically, adjacent to the locality, around 350 acres of government lands remained untouched for the project.
Said Ashok, a resident, “The houses we have are our biggest assets; we have no savings apart from this. When our parents and grandparents came here, there was nothing here except bushes- no connectivity, no power.”While the proposed land requirement for the major depot at Madhavaram is totally put at 57.2 hectares, the CMRL report stated that the depot facilities required only about 27.8 hectares. It remains unclear what use the remaining land would be put to.
Meanwhile, the Environmental Assessment Report stated that a total of 934 trees may be affected for the entire project. However, residents said that the government farm in Madhavaram Milk Colony, a large part of which comes under the project, by itself houses around 1,000trees. When contacted, CMRL officials said a more detailed study is to be carried out for the project. Responding to residents’ questions why the 350-acre government land adjoining Assisi Nagar was not put to use, a CMRL official said that the consultant may not have differentiated between government land and patta land while drawing up the proposal.“Now that the residents have brought this to our notice, the request would be considered,” the official said.