Officials urge encroachers along Muthannan Kulam to vacate

Coimbatore: Before launching the lake rejuvenation and restoration project at Kumarasamy lake (Muthannan Kulam) at RS Puram, officials of the city corporation and the Tamil Nadu slum clearance board (TNSCB) on Tuesday held talks with the people staying in houses constructed along the lake.
“As many as 1,800 families have been residing along the lake for decades. TNSCB had provided alternative accommodation to all of them in the housing units at Malumichampatti and Kovaipudur. But the encroachers are refusing to shift and are using both the houses,” said a TNSCB official. “We held talks with them to convince them to vacate the houses, which are constructed in violation of the norms. The move is still in preliminary stage. We will demolish the houses only after convincing the people to vacate on their own. We want to ensure that they don’t create any law and order problem.”
Meanwhile, the encroachers are refusing to move to the TNSCB units and are demanding an alternative land. “Most of us work as labourers within the city limits. If shifted to the city outskirts, we would be forced to spend half of our wage on transportation. The housing units lack even the basic amenities like water and power. Also, we will be forced to send our children to the schools that are kilometres away from the housing units,” said M Manikandan. “We had conveyed our demands to the officials during the last meeting conducted a few months ago. The officials had agreed to consider our demands,” he added.
The corporation had issued work order to commence the lake project a few months ago and is carrying out the preliminary works.