Sholinganallur sees big jump in voter population
CHENNAI: The Sholinganallur Assembly constituency witnessed the highest population influx in Tamil Nadu in the last seven years. According to official draft electoral list released on September 1, the number of voters has risen to 6.07 lakh now as against 3.4 lakh in the 2011 Assembly elections. This is despite removal of about 17,000 voters from the 2016 voter list.
This means that 2.67 lakh voters resettled in the constituency, which is the fastest and highest migration in the state.
According to the 2011 census, the state has 75 per cent of population as its voters. If one goes by this data, the population of Sholinganallur reached about 7.5 lakh, making it one of the most densely populated places in Tamil Nadu.
The constituency covers areas under Perungudi and Sholingnallur Corporation zones and seven village panchayats in the St. Thomas Mount block. The surge in population is mainly attributed to migration of slum-dwellers from core areas of Chennai city to Ezhil Nagar (Kannagi Nagar), Semmanjeri and Perumbakkam areas, and rampant increase in new buildings along the Rajiv Gandhi Road (OMR).
More than 25 per cent of voters reside in Kannagi Nagar, Ezhil Nagar, Semmanjeri and Perumbakkam slum board tenements, revealed the voter list.
In early 2000, the state government proposed a large-scale housing projects for slum-dwellers on the outskirts city in Okkiyam Thuraipakkam and Semmanjeri along the Rajiv Gandhi Road, mainly due to better ground water and road connectivity.
Though Kannagi Nagar, which was once touted as one of biggest slum resettlement areas in South Asia, miserably failed on account of loss of livelihood of tenements, the government has continued its decision to shift the people to the multi-storeyed slum clearance apartments.
The large-scale migration has led to reduction in the number of voters in Chennai district by nearly three lakh since 2016. However, revenue officials deployed in voters enumeration works said, “Newly migrated population has been distributed across Pallikaranai, Madipakkam, Kovilampakkam, Puzhuthivakkam, Jalladampettai and Vengaivasal villages.
The rise in number of voters cannot be fully attributed to slum resettlements. Availability of ground water may also have led to new buildings,” said a senior official.
2.67 lakh
Voters have resettled in the Sholinganallur constituency, which is the fastest and highest migration in the State. If calculated based on 2011 census, its population has reached about 7.5 lakh,
making it one of the most densely populated places in Tamil Nadu
Figuring it out
- According to the official draft electoral list released on September 1, the number of voters in Sholinganallur constituency has risen to 6.07 lakh from 3.4 lakh in the 2011 Assembly elections
- The constituency covers areas under Perungudi and Sholingnallur Corporation zones and seven village panchayats in the St Thomas Mount block
- The rise in population has been mostly attributed to migration of slum-dwellers from core areas of Chennai city to places such as Ezhil Nagar (Kannagi Nagar), Semmanjeri and Perumbakkam areas
- Rampant construction of new buildings along the Rajiv Gandhi Road (OMR) has also been cited as one of the reasons for the rise