Meena was cooking breakfast when someone knocked on the door. She opened it to see two men bearing weapons. They were looking for a man who had littered the area with liquor bottles.
“I told them my husband was at home last night, but they didn’t listen. They pushed me aside and grabbed my husband by his shirt. When they realised he wasn’t the one, they shoved him and left. We didn't even know who these people were,” said Meena.
Meena and her family are among the 196 families who were moved to Gudapakkam, near Thirumazhisai, since the second half of 2016 from the banks of the Cooum as part of the Cooum River Eco-Restoration Project. Even as people started moving into the tenements, conflicts with the host community have erupted. “Many of them get into drunken brawls and throw liquor bottles on the road,” said S. Vetrivel of Gudapakkam village.
This seems to be a regular complaint among the villagers, who said they were not consulted when the resettled families were being shifted. Earlier this week, the police had to intervene to resolve a fight between a few relocated residents and those from the village.
‘Being victimised’
S. Rajan, a recently resettled resident, said the villagers drink too. “Why are only we being targeted? We drink and argue amongst ourselves, and do not trouble them,” he said.
Mr. Rajan alleged they were not allowed to fill water from handpumps or operate food carts. “If we do any of this, we are abused and asked to return to the slums. We have already been cut off from our old jobs and earning a livelihood here is difficult,” he said.
Relocated residents also complained of casteist slurs being used against them and of feeling insecure during routine chores like trips to the ration shop. E. James, a community leader at Gudapakkam village, however, said they only wanted to ensure order was maintained. “While we are helping families get documents, there is only so much we can do. It is difficult for them to get jobs here,” he said.
Newly-constructed tenements at Gudapakkam by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board.
Under the restoration project, ₹181.85 crore has been allocated for the rehabilitation of those evicted from near Cooum, which includes subsistence allowance. Of this, ₹4.89 crore was allotted for community development programmes and ₹1.41 crore for engaging project management groups. Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board officials, however, said they would execute community development tasks only after all the 1,024 tenements are occupied in Gudapakkam.
Rehabilitation process
This means that for those who have already been relocated, it’s a long wait for rehabilitation. One of them noted that the lack of jobs had spurred alcoholism. “This is another case of ghettoisation and the government is replicating failed models,” said Vanessa Peter, policy researcher, Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities. “While the Slum Board has failed to implement the project, Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust (CRRT) authorities, who have funded it, have failed to monitor it,” she added.
CRRT officials said they only deal with the engineering aspects, not the social ones.
With nearly 350 more families likely to arrive soon, it is natural then that residents are worried about more tension in the area.
