COIMBATORE: The city corporation demolished 271 houses at GM Nagar near Ukkadam in the city on Tuesday to construct a water channel.An official from the corporation said they had issued notice to the residents twice – once in October 2018 and then in June 2019 – requesting them to vacate the houses as it was constructed on water channel – Rajavaikal.
Alternative accommodation was provided to all the occupants at the housing unit of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) in Ukkadam at free of cost and the occupants had moved a couple of days ago, a TNSCB official said. It is one of the smoothest anti-encroachment drives that was conducted in the recent time, the official added.
“We have removed most of the encroachments in the city. Most of it were removed in the recent times. If we clear the encroachments near Muthanankulam, then we would have almost completed the drive. Muthanankulam is just one place where over 1,000 households continue to reside encroaching waterbodies and it would be cleared soon,” the official added.
It is not just the houses that were constructed on the water channel at GM Nagar, the corporation itself has constructed community toilets under the ‘Swachh Bharat’ mission on the channel.
As many families apart from the encroachers were also using the toilets, it was decided not to demolish at this time, the official said.