Town Planning wing officials in the Coimbatore Corporation on Friday surveyed houses built encroaching the Muthannankulam tank on Thadagam Road.
Sources in the know of the exercise said the officials went there to identify unoccupied houses from among the 1,500-odd houses on the tank and to start disconnecting power supply.
This would be the first step in demolishing the houses to free the tank of encroachments.
The Corporation along with the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board had constructed flats in Vellalore, Kovai Pudur, Malumichampatty and Keeranatham for the 1,500-odd families in Muthannankulam after identifying each of them by capturing their biometric details.
The Corporation sources said that the Board had also issued allotment orders to all the identified families and around 1,000 of those had left the Muthannankulam area. And, a few among those who had left the area had rented out their old houses to show that they remained occupied.
The Friday’s exercise was to identify the unoccupied houses and to check if the occupants were the owners or tenants. This would pave way for demolition of the houses soon, they added.
Opposing the Corporation’s move to identify unoccupied houses, the area resident and a former councillor M.S. Velmurugan said the houses the Board had allotted to them in the aforementioned four places were of poor quality that a few among them who moved to the flats had returned.
He wanted the Corporation and the Board to construct them new flats, somewhere closer to the city so that they, the residents, did not lose out on their livelihood, children’s education and pay more for transport to commute to the city.
He said the residents would meet on Saturday in the presence of leaders of all political parties and announce their next course of action.
