The Times of India          14.03.2011

CHENNAI: A Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Madras High Court pleading that the Perumbakkam resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) project be remodeled to have not more than 5000 houses.

The upcoming R&R project in Perumbakkam, located a few kilometers from the fast developing OMR IT corridor, aims to build around 27,000 houses (project I and II) for below poverty line families.

Concerned about the mushrooming resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) projects that shift the urban poor to localities far away from the city, A Narayanan, editor of Tamil magazine Paadam', has filed the PIL.

Each block in the Perumbakkam project would consist of eight floors with 24 flats of about 170 square feet of living space and two lifts with a generator and electrical junction room.

The petition states that the stairs and space separating the two houses is too narrow by normal standards for a likely population of 900 people per block'. There is no provision for a terrace in the blocks, the petition adds.

Pointing out that the project is one among a string of similar R&R projects that have taken place in the city over the last 10 years, Narayanan stated that these were carried out by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) with the help of agencies like the Chennai Corporation with funds from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

These tenements have come up both within the city, such as All India Radio Nagar project, as well as outside the city, such as Kannagi Nagar and Semmencheri, that come under the Kanchipuram district collectorate.

The petitioner added that at a meeting of officers convened by the Chief Secretary on March 1, 2010 with reference to the projects at Kannagi Nagar and Semmencheri, it was clearly made out' that TNSCB does not have the manpower and expertise to maintain the infrastructure and provide service delivery in such tenements.

Though the people resettled are the most disadvantaged sections of society who have been deprived of their livelihood and dispossessed of their homes, there are no medical facilities like a primary health centre or a hospital, the petition says.