C Shivakumar
Chennai:
The horrors of resettlement of thousands of families living in slums
to outskirts of the city in Kannagi Nagar and Semmencherry without any
basic social amenities continue to haunt slum dwellers, who are
refusing to budge from the six acres of defence ministry land opposite
Island Grounds.
Even as slum clearance board has been requested to provide tenements
in Perumbakkam to 3,000 families who have been residing in the area
for the last 30 to 35 years, by the defence department, residents say
they won’t vacate the land and demand insitu houses built by Tamil
Nadu Housing Board in the same locality.
The slums, which dot the road as well as along the banks of Cooum
opposite army quarters, has been a vote-bank for political parties but
then when it comes to the issue of eviction cadres from different
parties bury their hatchet while opposing the eviction move.
A trader and an AIADMK party cadre T Joseph, who is living in the area
for the last 35 years, says that slum dwellers are ready to be evicted
but they want Tamil Nadu Housing Board to build houses in the same
area.
“We refuse to be evicted from the area and dumped 30km far away. Our
livelihood would be affected. We know about the horrors of earlier
resettlement by the government,” he said.
LIC agent A Balaiyah, who had moved into the locality 20 years ago,
says that government should provide the defence establishment with an
alternate piece of land rather than evicting the residents.
Interestingly, residents say they have yet to be served a notice.
Munnusamy, who works as a coolie and is VCK cadre, says that most of
the residents do menial jobs in and around the locality. “Some work as
coolies. They start work early and return late at night. If the
government dumps them 30km far away how will they earn their
livelihood,” he reasons.
Independent researcher Vanessa Peter says that the slum dwellers can’t
be evicted from Perumbakkam as no social impact assessment has been
done in Perumbakkam. This is in violation of National Rehabilitation
and Resettlement Policy 2007 and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act,
she says. As per the act for any involuntary displacement of four
hundred or more families en masse, an Environment Impact Assessment
(EIA) and a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) has to be undertaken.
Interestingly, this is not the first time, the slum is facing
eviction. DMK government had tried to evict the slum dwellers.
Officials tried to enumerate us but we refused to cooperate, a slum
dweller says. The only enumeration done in the area was three months
ago on the pretext of survey of slums, says Joseph.
Interestingly, the slum has a Chennai Corporation school, a Chennai
corporation toilet, a ration shop, electricity board connection, a
marriage hall, a corporation hospital from MP fund. The residents have
Voter ID card, Aadhaar card and family ration card.
It is learnt that despite JNNURM’s explicit emphasis on in situ
development, over 77 per cent of the funds allotted to Chennai under
the Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) component have gone towards
construction of the Perumbakkam tenements.
Perumbakam Factfile:
--- A total of 20,000 tenements are being built in Perumbakkam
--- No public consultation has been conducted for this housing project yet.
---- Funds from the Special Component Plan have been used for the
construction of these tenements in Perumbakkam.
---- There are 24 houses in each floor of the Perumbakkam buildings,
across 8 floors
---- The houses span only 310 square feet
Eviction from Defence Land at Indira Nagar
No Name of slums Number of families
1. Pallavan Nagar 745
2. Gandhi Nagar 2245
(A, B, C, D, E blocks)
No comments:
Post a Comment