The committee constituted by the Madras High Court on April 24 this year to inspect Natham Colony, Anna Nagar and Kondampatti in Dharmapuri district to ascertain the relief given to the affected people and to suggest the rehabilitation measures, submitted its report to a division bench of the Madras High Court on Friday.
If the measures suggested by the committee to ensure permanent rehabilitation were implemented in full spirit, the same would certainly improve their economic status and solve the social problems, the five-member committee headed by R Vasuki, IAS, said.
Among other things, the committee suggested to the Dharmapuri District Administration to encourage the affected people to deposit the relief amount in banks, remove within one month the encroachment made by caste Hindus on the land given to the affected persons and begin economic activities based on the skilled workers available in plenty in the three places by starting Socio Economic Development programmes.
When the matter came up on Friday, advocate P Rathinam, the counsel for some of the petitioners submitted that the construction of the houses for rehabilitation of the affected people was of inferior quality. He also alleged that the functioning of the local Tahsildar was not satisfactory. The division bench comprising Justices R Banumathi and TS Sivagnanam, before which the report was submitted, directed Rathinam to handover the grievances of clients to government pleader (GP).
On behalf of the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, a counter was filed. The GP sought time for responding to the counter. Directing the GP to get instructions as to the averments made in the counter regarding the amount of Central assistance released to the State government, the bench adjourned the matter till July 5.