RANIPET: Around 3,000 residents of Sadhik Basha Nagar at Melvisharam in the district on Monday opposed the drive set to evict them from their area. For the past 40 years, around 300 families have lived on the Palar River poramboke land. The evacuation is being carried out based on a Madras High court order and aims to avoid another November rains situation, claims authorities, adding residents will be given alternative housing with patta.
However, residents said they have lived in the area for three generations and now, they have been asked to move out. We pay taxes but suddenly they're calling us encroachers, the residents complained. "During the Chennai - Bengaluru Highways expansion in the late 1990s, the government asked us to move out and gave us this place. Now, they're asking us to relocate again. How's this fair?," asked S Thameem, a resident.
"This is a low-lying area and Sadhik Basha Nagar residents were one of the worst affected during the November rains and floods. Almost 500 people were rescued and transported to shelters, the highest numbers in the district," an official said.
Locals met Collector D Baskara Pandiyan on Monday in the Collectorate. He tried to pacify them and explained it was risky to live by the river bank. He urged them to choose an alternate location and promised that the government would lend necessary aid.
After the meeting, Thameem told TNIE, "We have asked for time to reply to this suggestion. Most of us are daily wage labourers; our livelihoods and children's education depend on this area." We are ready to shift to some other place within the Visharam but we can't go to some remote area, he added.
Meanwhile, few other residents demanded the government build walls to separate the residential area and the river, to protect them from future floods.