Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam State Youth Wing secretary V. Eswaran has urged the district administration to remove seemai karuvelam on government lands. In a petition submitted at the weekly grievances redress meeting on Monday, he said that in a release issued a couple of days ago, the administration had asked land owners to remove the trees on their lands within 15 days.
But the release was silent on the removal of trees that were on government lands, river banks, streams and other water bodies. The High Court order, however, said that all thorny bushes should be removed.
Mr. Eswaran also said that the party had on Sunday removed the bushes on River Kowsika bed.
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Encroachments
Indhu Makkal Katchi-Tamilagam on Monday petitioned the district administration to remove encroachments on the playground in Ward 64.
In a petition, the organisation’s District Youth Wing secretary ‘Colony’ Prabhu said that the playground behind the farmers’ market (uzhavar sandhai) was under the occupation of taxi drivers who parked their vehicles there and the Corporation that had dumped street light poles.
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He also said that many street lights were faulty as well. This made the ground out of bounds of boys and girls, who had no alternative avenue to play. The district administration should, therefore, direct the Corporation to remove the encroachments.
Appeal against GO
Members of the Jeeva Nagar Residents Welfare Association have urged the district administration to appeal against the court order that directed the removal of houses in the area. In their petition, they said that the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board had acquired the area in 1970s and under the slum development scheme spent several crores of rupees to construct houses. The Coimbatore Corporation had also assessed 212 houses for property tax.
Jeeva Nagar road, as per records, was only 14 feet wide. But a school management and residents of a few nearby localities, by trying to project it as a public road, had registered cases against them for widening the road to 30 feet wide.
The petitioners also alleged that the residents, who had moved the court, lived in layouts that were unapproved and only to get approval they were laying claim to the road.
The district administration should, therefore, file a review against the court order so that they could continue to live there, the petitioners added.
‘Protect cart track’
K. Marudachalam of Appanaickenpatti village in Sulur and a few of his neighbours on Monday petitioned the district administration to remove encroachment on a cart track. In their petition, Mr. Marudachalam said that 15 - 20 feet wide track was used by villagers for long. Now a private company had fenced the track in an attempt to expand its campus. This had deprived the farmers there of access to a few agriculture fields in the area.