COIMBATORE: The Town Planning Department officials of the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) have retrieved about 11 cents of land worth Rs 1.5 crore after 59 years, from encroachers in Shanthi Nagar at Avarampalayam in the city, on Saturday.
A few miscreants had illegally encroached the land and rented it out to other individuals, who were running a bakery and a vehicle washing unit on the land. The encroachment removal drive took place after a complaint was filed by S P Thiagarajan, a social activist and the secretary of the Tamil Nadu Reserve Site Protection Committee. The activist had filed a complaint against these encroachments in May this year.
Thiagarajan said, “The Town Planning Department had given approval for a total of 55 plots on 5.4 acres of land at Shanthi Nagar in Avarampalayam of Ward 27 in the North Zone of the city in 1965. For these plots and a 10% public allotment (54 cents of land), lands were allotted in three places and all of them were encroached by miscreants. Out of these, only two were removed in accordance with the judgment of the Supreme Court. In the remaining 9.35 cents, an encroachment covering a portion of 2,834 sqft (6.4 cents) was recovered on Saturday.”
As per sources, a team of CCMC officials led by Town Planning Officer S Kumar along with North Zone ATPO K Sathya and other officials conducted the encroachment removal drive on Saturday, with the help of Peelamedu police. A total of 6.39 cents of OSR land worth about `1.5 crore was retrieved by officials after 59 years. After this, officials fenced the property and placed a board stating that the property belongs to CCMC, sources added.