The exercise the Coimbatore Corporation began sometime in September this year to identify and prevent misuse of reserve sites has been progressing well. At least that is what the statistics the Corporation posts on its website, >www.ccmc.gov.in , say.
20 wards In the five zones, the Corporation’s Assistant Town Planning Officers (ATPOs) concerned first identify and then measure reserve sites at all the layouts in the 20 wards in their jurisdiction.
They then take possession of the lands to fence and declare with a board that the land belonged to the civic body.
Fencing If the reserve site identified was under encroachment, the ATPOs would initiate the process of removing the encroachment before fencing and placing a board, sources in the civic body said.
If the encroachment was a residential building, the Corporation issued notice to the occupants to vacate the premises within 15 days to demolish the building.
Since the start of the exercise, ATPOs had visited 25 wards and identified 369 reserve sites.
The officials had also measured the extent of the reserve sites.
And it could be more than 50 acre, the sources said.
They pointed out that in Ward 64, the ATPO of East Zone had identified eight reserve sites, which measured three acre. In Ward 66 the ATPO concerned had measured 32 reserve sites measuring over 10 acre.
The sources said that the number of and extent of land measures and taken possession of were higher and bigger in added areas, which constituted 40 of the 100 wards. This exercise, sometimes carried out in association with the residents’ welfare association, had helped the Corporation identify lands in added areas for which it did not have records.
Land grab The sources added that the civic body had in a few instances also preferred land grab complaints – 11 with the Coimbatore Rural Police and four with the Coimbatore City Police.