Fate of Valangulam residents without house allotments uncertain

The residents will have to click photographs of their demolished houses, show those as proofs and then enter the Ammankulam tenements.

April 24, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 10:53 am IST - COIMBATORE:

Residents of Valangulam dismantling their houses before shifting to the TNSCB tenements allotted to them at Ammankulam in Coimbatore. File Photo: M. Periasamy

Residents of Valangulam dismantling their houses before shifting to the TNSCB tenements allotted to them at Ammankulam in Coimbatore. File Photo: M. Periasamy

There are two categories of people in the residential locality that is sandwiched between Valangulam in the south and Trichy Road in the north.

The first set is busy removing tiles from roofs and demolishing walls. The second set is also busy – running from pillar to post to meet officials to know what will be their fate in the coming days.

Those unpacking the tiles and bringing down the walls are doing so to fulfil the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board condition that they will have to bring down their houses before they can move over to the newly constructed tenements in Ammankulam.

The residents will have to click photographs of their demolished houses, show those as proofs to the TNSCB officers and then enter the Ammankulam tenements.

Even as they are removing the tiles and wooden poles, people are busy negotiating with the traders for a good price to sell those.

The second set of people is asking what will be the fate of their houses? “Will the TNSCB demolish our houses,” asks a worried S. Vekkaliammal. With no power and limited water supply, her life has never been worse.

The family that lived next to hers had shared power. Prior to moving over to Ammankulam and demolishing house as beneficiary, it asked for the power to be disconnected. Once the power supply was disconnected, Ms. Vekkaliammal lost power.

Many such families here are suffering, says S. Selvakumar, a resident, who has been trying to help fellow residents.

The absence of power has made life worse in the events as thieves are on the prowl, complains S. Sivanandan’s family. S. Indrani’s family is also staring at a similar fate.

Mr. Selvakumar says that several families have got the TNSCB’s identification number but not allotment orders as they have been left out.

The TNSCB had identified 792 beneficiaries and of those 450 have moved over to Ammankulam.

But there are over 1,009 families in the locality, say the residents.

With the TNSCB and the Coimbatore Corporation taking efforts to completely raze down the houses and fence the Valangulam bund, they want to know what will be their fate. Officials say they will soon decide on the fate of the residents. And while taking a decision, their difficulties will be kept in mind.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.