Revenue dept marks encroachment after Collector intervenes

CHENNAI : The Revenue Department has begun marking the extent of a religious encroachment on the Narayanapuram Canal in S Kolathur, following a petition from a local resident. This comes after the intervention of the Chennai District Collector. The plea sheds light on the government machinery’s lethargy to petitions received under government order 540, which pertains to removal of encroachments on government land.

J Sankar, a local activist, submitted a petition to the Sholinganallur tahsildar on August 28, 2018 seeking the removal of a religious encroachment and other minor encroachments on the Narayanapuram Canal. With no action being taken after a month, he went to meet the same tahsildar.“I was assured that action would be taken by the tahsildar,” Sankar said, explaining that assurances did not materialise into action on the ground.

After 10 days, Sankar approached the Guindy Revenue Divisional Officer with his appeal hoping that he’d set things in motion and the encroachment would be removed. With the one month specified in government order 540 for the RDO to act, he appealed to the district revenue officer for removal of encroachments on the canal.

But, the district revenue officer like the revenue divisional officer below him and the tahsildar further down the hierarchy did not act on the petition forcing Sankar to take his petition to Chennai district collector on December 31 during the Monday grievance meeting.

“Only after the Collector directed the tahsildar to take action, the Pallikaranai surveyor Arul Murugan came to mark the encroached area,” said Sankar, claiming that the surveyor had avoided surveying the encroachments despite instructions from the tahsildar when he had initially submitted his petition.
Arul Murugan, the surveyor, who residents accuse of indulging in taking bribes from encroachers was not available for comment.

Flagged by PWD
Ironically, the religious encroachment was flagged by the PWD after the Chennai Floods of 2015 and is yet to demolish the structure. “We marked the structure, but we haven’t received instructions to go ahead with the evictions,” said a PWD official.