The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : In Semmencheri, a simmering discontent

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Monday, Aug 27, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

In Semmencheri, a simmering discontent

Krishna Velupillai

Relocated residents complain of lack of basic amenities, distance from the city

“How can we pay when we have lost our livelihoods?”
There are only two buses that come here: residents

CHENNAI: The first thing that strikes visitors to Semmencheri, some 25 km from the city and known for the tsunami housing tenements, is the large number of people wandering aimlessly.

In 2005, houses in the Semmencheri were allotted to over 2,000 tsunami affected families — from several areas including Tiruvanmiyur and Besant Nagar.

But the beneficiaries have since been facing various problems in the area largely due to its distance out of the city and the lack of infrastructure and basic facilities.

Their problems notwithstanding, the State Government over the last four months has begun to transport additional families there.

“Families were brought in by the dozens in trucks that looked like corporation garbage trucks,” said Siva, a resident of Semmencheri, who settled there after the tsunami. According to statistics provided by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB), 1,725 families have been moved there over the last few months.

These families were allegedly encroachers in the Adyar Eco-Park on Adyar River areas as well as those moved from beneath the Kodambakkam flyover and those whose huts in T. Nagar and Saidapet were destroyed in fire.

With the arrival of the new families, there has been a fresh strain on the locality and its residents. The lack of facilities seems heightened, and there is a simmering sense of frustration among the residents. Slum clearance board officials say that while the tsunami affected families got their houses for free the new families will get the houses on a hire payment scheme for a period of 20 years during which the residents have to pay a monthly rent of Rs. 250 a month. Gracy Mohan lived behind EWS quarters in Kotturpuram.

“Four months ago we were asked to leave because we were illegal squatters. Now they want us to pay rent. We also have to pay Rs.1,250 for the allotment. “How can we pay when we have lost our livelihoods?”

Access to livelihood remains the most pressing issue for the residents. Siva cycles 18 kilometres to Tiruvanmiyur where he works as a watchman.

Women who worked as domestic help no longer have households in the vicinity to seek employment. Some of the women commute daily to Adyar and Besant Nagar to their previous jobs.

Men have also found it difficult to find work in the area, and consequently, a large number of them currently remain jobless.

“Commuting is very difficult, there are only two buses that come here, and they are also not frequent. We have to take a share auto to the main road and then take a bus, it’s very expensive.

“We have to spend around Rs. 30-40 everyday just on transport,” said Mary Joseph who works as a domestic help in Adyar. Her son also has to travel to the city every day to attend classes in his school.

The women complain about the lack of a police station in the neighbourhood and the growing alcoholism among the men folk who sit around all day doing nothing.

‘No proper teachers’

“The school also does not have proper teachers so many of our children wander off even if we send them to school,” complained another woman. Others complain that the nearest hospital is around 10-15 kilometres away in Kelambakkam.

“The list of problems we face here goes on, but the government thinks that giving us the houses is enough. Now with the extra people here, things can only get worse,” says Siva.

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