CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board showed families of Sathya Nagar and Sanjay Nagar in Vyasarpadi a petition signed by a dead person in a bid to evict the 500 odd families that live there, claim residents.
The TNSCB has proposed to build a complex of 972 tenements in the as a part of Moorthy Nagar Phase 2 project. The first phase of the project has about 950 families.
“The Slum Clearance Board showed us a petition that was allegedly signed by people from our own locality, requesting to be moved to better houses since we were living under pathetic conditions here.
When I read the petition, I was shocked to find the first name on the petition, among several others, were of people who were dead,” said Sajeesh K, a resident.
The board officials asked residents to pack up their belongings since their houses would be brought down for the Moorthinagar phase 2 project, said residents. The Moorthinagar phase 2 project proposes a 9 storeyed structure with 972 tenements. Residents on Tuesday, submitted a petition to the district collector on Tuesday, to stop the eviction of their houses.
“We have all lived here for almost 50 years and these were houses allotted to us during MGR’s time,” Sajeesh said, adding that no notice has been served yet.
Speaking to Express, a slum clearance board official said that the residents were agitating without reason. “They will not be resettled. The residents will be given houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas
Yojana-Housing for All scheme in the same place,” the official said. However, the residents said that the step will be in retrograde as they have spent a lot of money on building their own houses.
However, under the Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) component of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the beneficiaries may have to contribute to a part of the total cost of the house that is to be
built.