Welfare Association of Residents (Kurichi Housing Unit, Phase II) have urged the district administration to remove encroachments on roads. The width had come down from 100 ft to 40 ft.
In a petition, the association said that in Ward 100 of the Coimbatore Corporation, where around 1,000 families lived, some of those who had set shop in the industrial estate had encroached upon the 100 ft road. When the residents objected to the encroachment, the industrialists had claimed that they had bought 40 ft of the road space. They had lodged a complaint against the residents who protested.
Even as the case against the residents was pending, the industrialists once again attempted to encroach upon the road space, which, however, was averted by the police.
The latest move to grab the roads comes in the backdrop of a similar move the industrialists undertook in 2004 to eat away road space. By citing a Kurichi Municipality Council resolution of 2004, the industrialists claimed that they had bought 60 ft of the 100 feet road space, and 40 ft of the 80 feet road space for their use.
The residents, however, did not agree with them and claimed that all approved drawings of the area had clearly earmarked the encroached area as road. How could a local body sell road space, they wanted to know.
