The Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), a non-governmental organisation working for the urban poor, has expressed concern over the recent eviction of around 60 families living for the past several years on the land allotted to them under the World Bank-funded Madras Urban Development Plan (MUDP).
Citing reports in a section of the media, IRCDUC, in a statement, said these families in Neduvankarai Pillaiyar Kovil Street in Arumbakkam were evicted under the Integrated Cooum River Restoration Project as the land had been classified as watercourse poramboke.
Pointing out that the MUDP scheme was implemented in Chennai between 1977 and 1987, Vanessa Peter, founder, IRCDUC, said it was aimed at in situ development and eventual transfer of land rights to people through “freehold titles” on the basis of a hire purchase agreement. It was the government that identified the land for settling families under this scheme, the IRCDUC said in the statement.
Arguing that many families would have paid money as per the hire-purchase agreement for transfer of land rights to them, Ms. Peter said: “Just because of the fault of the government in determining land classification and delay in land transfer, people had now lost their claims to their land”.
She highlighted that nearly 50,000 families were settled on around 300 sites in the city through the MUDP scheme. According to her, a survey conducted in 2022 by IRCDUC in 50 of these sites revealed that land rights had not been transferred to a majority of the families and seven sites were found to be located near the waterbodies.
She told The Hindu that there was need for a clear policy decision from the government in addressing the delay in transfer of land rights and the handling of lands classified as watercourse poramboke as hundreds of families like the ones in Arumbakkam could be affected if their MUDP allocation were to be cancelled.
