Residents of High Court Colony (South) are a worried lot: what they had not even imagined has happened: their residential layout, created by the Madras High Court, has been encroached upon.
The layout on CTH Road, Villivakkam, was formed bearing Survey nos. 237 and 238 for the court staff on the order of the Madras High Court in 1949. As per the original plan, the well-laid housing plots had broad streets and space reserved for parks. But today the roads have become narrow and the ‘reserved space’ has been encroached upon, allege the residents. S. Srinivasan, a resident of the colony, complained that a building itself has been constructed on the road, which previously linked the Thirunagar Colony, and a huge space that was designated as ‘Reserved’ has been encroached upon with several commercial buildings having come up there.
For several years, Mr. Srinivasan has been knocking on the doors of the Chennai Corporation, the Revenue Department and the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) seeking action against the encroachers. He has also petitioned through RTI seeking plan sanction documents of the buildings constructed in encroached space. “But the authorities of the CMDA, the Revenue department and the civic body have either not provided any reply to the RTI or have responded about the lack of documents,” he complained.
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Another resident of 1st Cross Street, on condition of anonymity, citing the encroachments in the survey numbers, alleged that the authorities have not taken any steps to prevent or remove encroachments.
The residents have only one request — conducting a survey of the colony by the Revenue department.