CHENNAI: At least 213 families resettled in Perumbakkam under the Integrated Cooum River Eco Restoration Project five years ago are yet to get allotment orders for the houses they occupy.
Without temporary or permanent allotment orders, these families have not received `5,000 per family issued as shifting allowance and a monthly subsistence allowance of `2,500 for one year that are usually provided under the ICRERP resettlement package.
The Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC) which undertook a rapid assessment to identify these families has urged the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) to provide the pending allowances with interest. While the IRCDUC estimates around 1,000 families may have been denied the allowances due to the lack of allotments, they were able to track only 213, the report said.
The families resettled from NN Nagar (Navalan Nedunchezhiyan Nagar), Kakkan Street, Amma Nagar, SM Nagar (Sathyavani Muthu Nagar), and Pallavan Nagar were the ‘left-out’ families who were not included in the initial enumeration at the time of eviction.
Since they were allotted housing later than most, they received tokens, a handwritten slip with the house number, name of the allottee and the seal of the assistant engineer of the city corporation, and not allotment order.
These families are also not provided fans and lights that usually come with the resettlement package under ICRERP and are left out of livelihood restoration programmes like employment linkages and skill training provided by the TNUHDB.
The lack of allotments even after five years results in the families living in fear of losing their houses at any time.
“In a few blocks these families also pointed out that they are also not recognised and included by residents welfare association because they are referred to as ‘temporary’ families. They are never included or provided opportunities to become members or office-bearers of the association,” the report said.
In addition, these families are also dealing with mounting electricity bills since the billing name specifies the designation of TNUHDB engineer and not the names of allottees. Without being able to pay EB bills, bills have piled up.
When contacted, a TNUHDB official said they are awaiting enumeration details from the corporation to verify whether these people were residents of the evicted areas. “We will process their allotments once the verification is done and disburse the allowances,” the official said.