Chennai: Water resources department's efforts to demolish illegal structures encroaching Koladi lake as per Madras high court orders hit a roadblock when more than 500 residents held protests saying a resident had died by suicide after his house was marked for demolition.
The 169-acre lake has now shrunk to 112 acres due to encroachments. Its original water holding capacity was 2.7 million cubic metres with a surplus discharge of 164 cusecs. Taking suo motu note of a TOI report in this regard, the high court had ordered removal of all encroachments.
In the first phase last month, WRD demolished 20 newly constructed, unoccupied homes. Further, about 1,600 houses were surveyed, and demolition notices were issued after high court's nudge.
The deceased, a 44-year-old carpenter named Shankar, had been living with his wife and three children in the area for 10 years. His wife complained that he was distressed over the threat of demolition and expressed suicidal tendencies since the day the notices were served.
He hanged himself at home on Monday. Thiruverkadu police registered a case and conducted a postmortem before handing his body over to his family.
On Tuesday, protesters said that they would not allow Shankar's final rites to proceed unless senior officials from the district administration or a state minister personally assured them that their homes would not be demolished. "We are depressed over the sudden demolition, the authorities should at least consider giving us more time," said one of the protesters, Amaravathy.
The blockage on Thiruverkadu-Ambattur road went on for more than seven hours despite attempts at negotiation by police and revenue authorities. Traffic was, therefore, severely hit as vehicles were diverted via alternative routes. By afternoon, more than 300 police officers were deployed to manage the crowd. By 4pm, the protesters were arrested and taken to a nearby private hall. Police barricaded the area, preventing protesters on the main road.