T. Nagar residents want their pavements back

Frustrated over the rampant encroachment of roads and footpaths, a section of T. Nagar residents led by members of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) staged a road blockade on Masilamani Street on Monday.

The protesters met Corporation officials in T. Nagar and submitted a petition demanding the removal of encroachments from government lands, roads and footpaths. Civic body officials estimate that the number of encroachments in T. Nagar alone could be over 10,000.

“We are unable to walk on the pavements due to the increasing encroachments. We had submitted a petition to the officials earlier but no action was taken. The delay in clearing the encroachments forced us to stage a road blockade,” said V. Arumugam, a PMK functionary who took part in the agitation.

Alleging that an owner of an eatery was paying ₹1,500 per day to keep his stall by the roadside, Mr. Arumugam said, “Roads and footpaths near Natesan Park are full of encroachments. Residents have complained about the encroachments on Kannadasan Street and Venkatnarayana Road as well. But there is no response from officials.”

Protesters said that unauthorised persons have been grabbing Corporation-owned land along the roads and footpaths, persuading traders to develop shops, on payment of money ranging from ₹800 to ₹1,500 per day.

“A person collects rent of ₹15,000 per day from 10 traders who have set up shop on encroached land in T. Nagar,” Mr. Arumugam claimed.

Relay of delays

Corporation officials said that they were unable to remove encroachments because of a delay in the rehabilitation of street vendors by the Town Vending Committee.

Besides, the delay in conducting the local body elections has halted the election of the members of the town vending committees, which again caused a delay in issuing identity cards to over 26,000 vendors in the city.

Officials said that identification of street vending zones in all the 15 zones of the Corporation would be a challenging task.