CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Saturday directed the
Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) to clear encroachments, including an additional staircase built by the occupants of a multistorey building of the board, at Tondiarpet.
A division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P
Rajamanickam also ordered police assistanceduring thedrive, as Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board anticipate law and order problems.
The bench passed the order on a plea moved by S
Thirunanasambanda Murthy, one of the residents of the tenement, seeking a direction to remove illegal construction put up by another resident
S Mahalakshmi in the unused portion of the common space.
When the petition came up for hearing in the court, the board submitted that the original allottees of the tenement were Lalitha and
Govindan and that the petitioner and
Mahalakshmi had purchased the property without any permission from Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board .
It was further averred that both the petitioner and Mahalakshmi had encroached on the open spaces and had put up superstructures.
This apart, Mahalakshmi is constructing an additional staircase on the western side of the block, which is being objected to by the petitioner.
The board said that all the encroachments in the tenement should be removed immediately with police protection.
Recording the submissions, the court directedtheboard to remove theencroachments with police protection within 12 weeks.
Representative image