Resettlement horror

Chennai:

After eight years of resettling more than one lakh people in Okkium Thoraipakkam, Perumbakkam and Semencherry, the state government is still grappling to provide necessary infrastructure to the residents there, according to a report submitted by the state to the office of Supreme Court Commissioners.



In the report, which is available with Express, the government has stated that they are forming a committee headed by top officials to prepare a policy or a set of guidelines to be followed whenever rehabilitation and resettlement scheme comprising 5,000 households are proposed.



Interestingly, this decision comes eight years after the suffering of the people were highlighted through media reports and civil societies. “What compensation is the government providing for the innumerable sufferings they have endured due to the failure of government policies. This proves they are haphazardly evicting people without providing them basic infrastructure,” says Citizens Rights Forum member Vanessa.



“Whenever, there are 5,000 households (25,000 population), all facilities including infrastructure, funding, staffing, operational and maintenance issues related to this and delivery of services by the local bodies and all other departments should be included as part of the package and the committee should come up with a set of norms for this purpose,” the report stated.



The report stated that Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board has created infrastructures like roads, streetlights, storm water drain, underground sewerage system and handed them over to the concerned local bodies for maintenance. However, the local bodies are unable to maintain them, therefore the TNSCB took over.



But surprisingly, the TNSCB neither has the infrastructure nor the staff to maintain the facilities as it is not a local body. The Housing and Urban development secretary in the minutes of the meeting has stated that if it is not possible for rural development and panchayat raj department to maintain it then TNSCB should be authorized to maintain the infrastructure and given necessary funds.



The rural development and panchayat raj secretary has stated that the panchayats are basically unable to deliver the services due to lack of funds or staff since this was decided based on census 2001 and they are unable to tax the residents to fund service delivery.



He felt that taxes should be collected or paid by the TNSCB but the Slumboard MD feels that tenements constructed by TNSCB has been allotted on hire purchase basis and in many cases ownership has been transferred to the residents by way of issue of sale deeds and hence TNSCB was not liable to pay taxes.



The slumboard managing director pointed out that when such huge resettlement projects are taken up there is a need for service delivery otherwise it brings bad name to government as well as renders the entire process infructous given that these people are the most disadvantaged sections and have been moved out from their homes in the city.