Coimbatore: The Directorate of Town and Country Planning has decided to stick to the court order and cancel the de-reservation of a 100-foot road into 60-foot and a 40-foot road into 23-foot at Nanjundapuram and leading to the Sungam bypass.
At a meeting participated by Coimbatore collector, member secretary of the local planning authority, town planning wing officials of Coimbatore corporation, president of the resident welfare aassociation of Veerappa Thevaar Colony and activists at the DTCP commissioner's office in Chennai on Tuesday, the residents submitted a petition. They wanted the 100-foot road that was reduced to 60 feet to be restored to 100 feet and all encroachments by private land owners be removed. B Kulandaisamy, president of Kovaai Ramaanathaapuram Resident Welfare Association, said the commissioner has accepted their demands.
As per the detailed development plan approved in 1991, a 100-foot scheme road and a 60 cent playground were registered in Nanjundapuram. In 2007, three land owners wrote to the LPA to de-register the 60 cent playground and convert it into a residential land. The LPA accepted the request and wrote to the DTCP for the same, but also added another point in the letter seeking reduction of the width of the 100-foot road into 60-foot road. The DTCP, that had rejected the plea in 2009, approved it in 2010 and allowed de-registration and to reduce the width of the road. A case filed in 2007 is pending in the high court and RTI activists also moved the court regarding the issue. B Kulandaisamy filed another writ petition on July 28, 2017.
RTI activist S P Thiyagarajan said de-reservation of land was not allowed as per court orders and norms. "Any land that has been registered for a purpose cannot be de-reserved for another purpose. And some private parties are using political influence and are even reducing the road width to sell them as plots, which is illegal," he said.
After the meeting, the report will be submitted in the court, said officials.
