City corpn demolishes compound wall for encroaching on reserve site

Coimbatore: The city corporation on Wednesday demolished the compound wall of a house in Alamu Nagar Extension at Kovaipudur for encroaching 6.5 cents of open space reservation (OSR) land demarcated as children play area next to it.
“With eight buildings, the layout is spread over 65 cents. As per norms, OSR land should be of 6.5 cents i.e., 10% of the layout area. But, the plot developer had converted the children play area into a lawn and included it within the compound wall of the first house of the layout,” said SP Thiyagarajan, a social activist.

In 2014, the corporation issued a notice to the owner of the house to remove the encroachment part. But the building owner moved the Madras high court and obtained a stay order.

While disposing of the petition by the house owner, the court had directed the petitioner to submit necessary documents to prove the ownership of the land to the corporation.

The corporation gave more than sufficient time to submit the documents, but he failed to do so, Thiyagarajan added.

“The land belongs to the city corporation. We are in the process of identifying the encroachment and recovering the land. The compound wall was demolished, and a board was erected at the land earmarked as children play area,” said an official from corporation.