CHENNAI: After the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS) issued directions to build a flood retaining wall in the Mathur lake after clearing encroachments that eat up almost half of the lake, the compound wall that has now been built protects the encroachments from flooding, rather than protecting the lake.
Amidst allegations that Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board buildings, along with other private buildings, are encroaching the Mathur lake, the ‘encroachments’ are now not only legitimised but also can rest easy without fear of flooding thanks to the wall protecting it, said residents.
The around five-foot-high wall was built by the city Corporation at a cost of `80 lakh.
“The Corporation has used the tax payer’s money to protect the encroachments instead of removing them, violating the directions of TANUVAS,” said R S Babu from Mathur MMDA Welfare Association, who has been involved in a long-drawn fight to reclaim the Mathur lake.
A land committee meeting was held at TANUVAS, which owns the lake, in 2015 to ‘sort out the encroachment problem and survey the land’. According to the minutes of the meeting, a copy of which is available with Express, it was decided to ‘take action to evict the encroachments from the land area and on the legal cases pending’, since the Corporation authorities were then otherwise ready for the construction of the wall.
In response, a TANUVAS official said that the lake itself was only 30 acres (around 12 hectares) and that the entire lake has been freed of encroachments. However, according to the State government survey and settlement department map, the Mathur lake covers 25 hectares (60 acres). Furthermore, records accessed from the Thiruvottiyur taluk office stated that only 12 hectares of the lake are now left without being encroached upon.
In response, Corporation officials said that the wall was not built on an encroached part of the lake. A small part of the encroachments of around 10 buildings, however, were removed from the lake after an order by the Tiruvottiyur court in April 2016. “Nowhere can you see a compound wall built right in the middle of the lake. Flood retaining walls are usually built in an attempt to mitigate the impact of floods, not compound walls,” a retired veterinary university official said.