
CHENNAI: The Chennai City Habitat Development Committee (CCDHC), constituted by the government to address persistent concerns of residents of Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) and other urban poor through effective coordination with all departments concerned, has not met for nearly three years after its first and only meeting in May 2022.
CCDHC, along with district habitat development committees (DHDCs) in all districts, were constituted by the Housing and Urban Development department through a government order on March 2, 2022, with senior officials from various departments, elected representatives and civil society organisations as members.
As per the order, while the committee for Chennai city, which houses the vast majority of TNUHDB tenements, should meet every two months, DHDCs should meet every three months.
The commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is the chairman of CCDHC, the Greater Chennai Police commissioner is the vice-chairman, and the MD of TNUHDB is the convenor.
While the constitution of the committee gave hope for swift redressal of a variety of infrastructure and livelihood related issues frequently raised by TNUHDB residents, the residents alleged that their worries remained and even worsened in the past few years with the committee failing to meet not even once after its initial meeting.
Mercy M, a resident of Perumbakkam TNUHDB tenements, said that though people like her were resettled in Perumbakkam eight years ago, many of them still struggled to even get their addresses changed in government identity cards.
“This has resulted in many being excluded from welfare schemes. There are children who even dropped out of school. Address change camps are conducted for just one or two days without prior information, and that too only when the media highlights these problems,” she alleged.
Vanessa Peter, the founder of Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities that works for the rights of poor, said there are several unresolved issues like poor quality of houses, inadequate facilities, and non-issuance of sale deeds and pattas in many settlements covered under different schemes.
“However, the delay in convening the committees for nearly three years is an act of omission and these committees must be convened and the minutes of the meetings should also be shared with the members,” she said.
Officials also confirmed that no meeting was conducted since its inaugural meeting.
Speaking to TNIE, a senior official of TNUHDB said while such meetings are regularly conducted in the districts, the same had not happened in Chennai. He said TNUHDB attempted to conduct the meeting twice, but it got cancelled due to Lok Sabha elections and the transfer of GCC commissioner around that time. He added that the meeting will be organised soon. A senior official from GCC also said that efforts will be made to convene a meeting shortly.