CHENNAI:It has been an endless wait for nearly four decades for more than 42,000 slum families, who are beneficiaries under two World Bank-aided projects implemented during 1979-80 and 1988-89, to get ownership rights over government lands, but red-tape has delayed the implementation of the schemes.
The families were living in 732 slums located on government land spread across the state which were adopted under the World Bank-aided Madras Urban Development Project (MUDP) and the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project (TNUDP) in 1979-80 and 1988-89 respectively to provide them with security of land tenure by way of lease-cum sale agreement as well as providing them with basic amenities.
These government lands where the families were staying were to be alienated and handed over to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) for providing basic infrastructure and allotting the occupied land to the residents on lease-cum-sale basis.
Official sources said that the government had till now provided sale deeds to 36, 497 families living in 495 slums under the scheme after the land has been alienated to the slum clearance board’s name.“A total of 42,823 families living in 237 slums have yet to be provided with sale deeds. Without sale deeds, the beneficiaries enjoy no tenure rights over their properties,” official sources said.Sources told Express that the slum board could not acquire the land from the government departments as these settlements are located on objectionable land like river and road margins.
It is learnt that beneficiaries in 165 slums located in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur, Madurai, Tiruchy, Coimbatore, Salem, Erode, Tirupur, Tirunelveli and Vellore are yet to get their sale deeds as the land with the department has yet to be alienated.Besides, the land alienation proposal is pending with the Revenue department, the State Housing Board, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department (HR and CE), Railway Ministry and IIT Madras.
Sources told Express that MUDP was implemented from 1979-80 in Chennai alone wherein land tenure was given to slums occupying the poromboke lands, Madras Corporation land, Union government lands like Railways, salt corporation, defence department, port trust, temple and Wakf boards. Initially, 258 slums were taken under this project and 59,841 families benefited.
Following the success of the scheme, State government extended the project to 10 larger urban agglomerations, including Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Salem, Vellore, Tiruppur, Erode, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin.However, the scheme could not proceed due to delay in departments transferring the land to the slum board. The initiative was again taken up in November 2012. However, with no breakthrough a proposal has been sent to the government to issue a Common Government Order to alienate the government land wherein the 237 slums proposed under the scheme were located recently, official sources said.
There is a suggestion for a single window approach wherein a common GO may be issued designating the revenue or any other department as a common gateway to coordinate with other departments and finalise proposals without delay, sources added.