After a gap of over seven months, the Water Resources Department has resumed its drive to remove encroachments along the Adyar and Cooum rivers to facilitate work to improve the waterways. However, it is being met with stiff opposition from residents in different areas.
For the third day, the department is issuing notices to the residents of encroached structures in various localities of Anakaputhur along the Adyar river. A total of 662 encroachments were identified in localities such as Quaid E Milleth Nagar, Shanthi Nagar, Dobikana Street, Thai Moogambikai Nagar and Stalin Nagar.
“We have served notices to over 500 residents so far. The structures have encroached upon nearly 50 metres of width in the river bed. At present, the river is only 70 metre wide near Anakaputhur. If the encroachments are cleared, it will mean additional space and ensure better carrying capacity of the river. It may mitigate flood in the neighbouring areas,” said an official.
While the WRD has started the process of biometric enumeration of encroachments on the banks of Adyar river, several residents of Anakaputhur were not keen to respond. However, the government officials pasted the notice on the doors of the houses, giving 21 days’ time for them to vacate. Heavy police security was in place in these areas. However, residents opposed the move, citing children’s education and distance of the alternate space provided.
D. Gajendran of Stalin Nagar said that they had been living here for the past 50 years. Alternate tenements identified in Perumbakkam or Navalur is too far for residents who depend on their daily wages, he said. While the government is keen on evicting residents living 150 metres away, there are ‘patta lands’ located closer to the river bank and are prone to obstruct free flow of river, he charged.
Another resident, M. Thilagam said: “We have been demanding that residents should be rehabilitated within three kilometres radius and be given sufficient time to vacate.”
The WRD had identified over 10,000 encroachments in various localities falling along 42-km long Adyar river. However, it was able to clear only about 4,100 encroachments, particularly in the city limits and the work was stopped abruptly early this year. Only if the river bank gets free of encroached structures, flood mitigation works, including raising the bund, can be carried out, officials said.
Meanwhile, the drive to clear encroachments along Cooum river has also started in the city limits. The department is in the process of enumerating encroachments in the 12-km stretch between Paruthipattu and Rail Nagar, Koyambedu. It is expected to start the eviction drive next month.
