THOOTHUKUDI: Around 400 residents of Thangamani Nagar who were shifted to a marriage hall as part of rescue operations following the heavy rain have been evicted citing wedding bookings.
The residents said they were on Thursday morning asked to leave the hall without any alternative arrangement being made, leaving them wondering where to go now.
One of the residents, Ponraj, said that ever since rain water entered their houses 15 days ago, they hadn’t been able to return home.
With water up to the hip level in their houses, the residents, many of them daily-wage labourers, are now being forced to sleep on the streets. Snakes and other poisonous reptiles are also posing a threat to the people trying to go back to their homes.
The residents alleged that no officials have visited their locality to assess the damage and that no official was present when they were asked to leave the camp.
Meanwhile, other residents said there were no adequate facilities at the camp. One of them, Shanmugaiah, claimed that though they had been promised blankets, they were yet to get them. The marriage hall that housed as many as 400 people has only two toilets.
Asked about the situation, the District Collector said that alternative arrangements for the Thangamani Nagar residents would be made and stagnant water pumped out.