CHENNAI: A 58-year-old set himself ablaze on Sunday morning in protest against the ongoing eviction drive at Govindasamy Nagar near Buckingham Canal in Chennai.
VG Kannaiyan, a PMK cadre, sustained 96% burns and is being treated in the ICU at the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital. While a doctor treating Kannaiyan told TNIE his condition is 'critical', his family alleged he was being kept on ventilator support to delay the inevitable as authorities anticipated a law and order problem in the event of his death.
"Save those without a voice," Kannaiyan cried, minutes before he was rushed to the hospital.
He was declared dead at 3.05 am on Monday.
His act of desperation came as the Water Resources Department, aided by the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board, Chennai Corporation and police, continued to bulldoze houses in the slum with heavy police protection from 7am Sunday despite strong resistance from residents.
Residents have sought for more time to vacate their houses and asked for new houses in the city rather than in Perumbakkam. Moving to Perumbakkam would not only affect their livelihood, but they were allotted flats on the seventh floor without any basic facilities, they said.
Kannaiyan had been distraught since the eviction drive began, repeatedly pleading with authorities on the ground to stop demolishing their houses, his family, which includes his wife, son, daughter and grandchildren, said.
"Our father has been living here ever since he was born. He was crying to us to stop the eviction process, unable to see the locality being razed to the ground. He ran near the house that was being demolished, poured fuel on himself and lit the match before we could do anything," said his daughter.
"His granddaughter is in Class 10 and is taking her board examinations. Officials did not even consider the plight of such students in the locality. How will they continue to study while being evicted?" one of his relatives asked.
Following the incident, residents argued with the officials, leading to a scuffle and the eviction process was halted. According to CPI sources, senior leader and freedom fighter R Nallakannu had spoken to Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday night urging him to stop the eviction and provide residents more time.
"After this information reached the officials, they expedited the eviction process and forced us to take tokens for flats at night. They even broke open locked houses, threw out household items and razed. They didn't even stick to their promise that houses of Class 10 and 12 students would not be demolished," claimed Karthick, a resident.
CPI leader R Mutharasan visited the locality on Sunday morning and assured the residents the party will stand with them.
"The locality has been declared as a slum and it is more than 40-feet from the Buckingham canal. Water didn't enter the houses even during the 2015 floods. The government has to file a review petition to help the residents," said R Geetha of Pennurimai Iyakkam.
In the reply to the contempt petition filed by the businessman in 2015, the then Housing secretary submitted to the SC that the petition had been filed with the sole motive of personal gain. "The petitioner's only interest is to gain additional wider access to his properties from the canal bank side to increase the real estate value of his property which is located adjacent to the encroached area," it said. It also stated that the petitioner was planning to raise an apartment on the remaining land and sell it to the public at a premium by marketing them as 'canal view apartments.'