Chennai:
The Supreme Court has given the state housing department two months
deadline to remove encroachments along the banks of Buckingham Canal.
The order was passed by the Supreme Court on July 31 after hearing a
contempt petition filed by one Rajiv Rai.
Rai had moved a contempt of court for alleged failure on the part of
government to implement the Supreme Court order of 2011 to remove the
encroachments put up at Elango Street and Raja Annamalaipuram abutting
Buckingham Canal after constructing houses for the encroachers.
The order by Supreme court stated that the 625 families which has
encroached on the embankments of the canal should be rehabilitated to
alternate housing, once the houses are constructed in Okkium
Thoraipakkam by Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board.
The three member bench headed by Chief justice of India H L Dattu
granted two months time for the state housing department to evict the
encroachers and provide them with alternate houses in the newly built
tenements in Okkium Thoraipakkam.
However, the judges also observed that the disposal of contempt
petitions will not come in the way of the petitioner approaching the
court once over again with yet another contempt petition, if, for any
reasons, the alleged contemnors does not comply with the order..
Interestingly, Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board has already constructed
and handed over the 625 tenements at Okkium Thoraipakkam.
However, the PWD, the owner of the land that has been encroached, have
been able to convince only 366 families, with the rest 259 putting up
a stiff resistance from being evicted. The PWD has returned these
allotment orders citing their inability to collect thumb impression
from these families on the face of this opposition.
The encroachments are on Public Works Department land and a legal
tussle started from 2006 onwards where in a private party wanted the
encroachments to be removed
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