Tampered list deny beneficiaries World Bank’s tsunami tenements in Nochikuppam

 

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Scores of people, who were moved to temporary shelters on the promise of being allotted a tenement in Nochikuppam under the World Bank scheme, have been left high and dry as the beneficiaries list has been tampered.

The Slum Clearance Board does acknowledge that the list has been earlier tampered and an enquiry has been going on so that the anomalies are rectified.

“We are reviewing 56 allotments and would take a decision soon,” said a top official of the Slum Clearance Board assuring transparency.

“There had been some anomalies earlier. After I had taken charge, I went through the petitions and a probe is still on,” he said.

Interestingly, many of the earlier allotments were even cancelled by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board.

Many of those like Sundari and Sekhar, who were photographed and given a biometric card along with a Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board letter, were running from pillar to post. They were surprised to know that their name did not figure in the final list of beneficiaries at all.

When Express contacted the officials they claimed the name might have been cancelled. “But how can officials cancel the allocation when they themselves provided them with a biometric card. We are puzzled,” say the couple, who sell vegetables on roadside. But a senior slum board official assured that he will look into the issue and set right the things.

“It is an irony that the original beneficiaries who have been evicted from the slums on promise of tenement by providing them with biometric cards and a letter of undertaking are denied their right, said R Anbuvendan, coordinator of All Slum Residential Welfare Associations Federation.

Interestingly, it was also found that many of the names in biometric cards and in the list fail to match.  Take the case of the couple Rukmani and David. In the tampered list the name given is Rukmani and Devika. Interestingly, the original beneficiaries are unaware that they have been issued the tenement.

“The first name may be matching but then the second name is changed raising unanswered queries. Who will then be the beneficiary,” says Anbuvendan.

Interestingly, there were instances that both husband and wife were given separate tenements each. “On many instances, wife will claim the tenement stating that the husband had fled with other woman and in another husband will claim a tenement that wife fled with another man,” claim TNSCB sources. There were also instances of brother and sister raising their claims for a tenement stating they are husband and wife,” TNSCB sources said.

But Anbuvendan says it is surprising that the officials who issued biometric cards to the beneficiaries are beating around the bush and providing the tenements to those who are not beneficiaries. “Why don’t they go in for beneficiaries who were provided with biometric cards,” he reasons.

There have also been allegations that money has been exchanged to get the tenements which officials deny. But the failure to provide the allotments as per the biometric cards issued to them is raising queries whether the allotments are really being provided to the original beneficiaries. “The state government has to probe this issue and punish the erring officials who are denying the poor their housing rights,” says Anbuvendan