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Slum Development / Housing

CMDA panel told it has ‘no authority’

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The Hindu      23.06.2016 

CMDA panel told it has ‘no authority’

Housing Secretary says it can only make suggestions and govt. is ‘supreme and sovereign’

Wednesday’s meeting was the first one to be held after the AIADMK returned to power. —Photo: R. Ragu
Wednesday’s meeting was the first one to be held after the AIADMK returned to power. —Photo: R. Ragu

Members of the Monitoring Committee of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority were told on Wednesday that the committee could only make suggestions and that it had “no authority”, while the State government was “supreme and sovereign”.

Dharmendra Pratap Yadav, Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development, made these observations during the proceedings of the 57th meeting of the committee, which convenes at regular intervals to take up important issues such as applications from promoters for regularisation.

“We were taking up the issue of application for regularisation of a multi-storey building on Santhome High Road that was declared ‘unauthorised’ after thorough reporting by the CMDA. We had rejected the application during a meeting in February itself, but it came back,” committee member and former Member Secretary of CMDA M.G. Devasahayam said.

“When we submitted that the application cannot be considered for regularisation, the Housing Secretary told us: ‘You have no authority. You cannot take a decision and can only suggest. The government is sovereign and supreme’.”

Recording the stand

In reply, the members of the monitoring committee — distinguished persons in the fields of urban planning — asked the CMDA to record in the meeting proceedings the latter’s stand that the committee had no role to play and that it was only a consulting body.

Following this, the meeting ended abruptly. This was the first meeting of the committee after the AIADMK returned to power The last meeting was in February.

Efforts to reach Mr. Yadav for a response were not successful.

The episode is bound to stir a debate surrounding the role of the committee, which has played a crucial role in planning the city’s growth.

The committee has made suggestions to the CMDA on improving the implementation of rules and administration.

During the February meeting, the application for regularisation for the building on Santhome High Road was rejected on the grounds that the width of the road was only 38 feet, as against the required 60 feet.

Further, the Floor Space Index of the building stood at 2.67, while the maximum permissible limit was only 1.5.

 

Over 16,500 families identified as slum-dwellers in urban Salem

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The Hindu             11.02.2014

Over 16,500 families identified as slum-dwellers in urban Salem

Staff Reporter

Houses to be constructed under ‘Slum Free India’ programme

A total of 16,524 families were residing in the 302 slum areas identified in the corporation limits spread across 91.34 sq km. in the four zones.

This was announced at the consultative meeting on Slum Free City Plan of Action (SFCPOA) for the Salem City Municipal Corporation (SCMC) at a function organised by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board here on Monday.

Under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), that envisages a ‘Slum Free India’ by 2022, Gandhinagar New and Old Colony in Ward 6 in the corporation limits were selected for construction of 235 individual houses at a cost of Rs. 13.970 crore.

Subsidy

Each house would be constructed in the cost ranging between Rs. 4 lakh to 6 lakh with 50 per cent subsidy from Central government, 40 per cent subsidy from State government and 10 per cent contribution from the beneficiary.

At the stakeholders meeting held on Monday, officials from slum clearance board said that a survey was being conducted by the Hyderabad-based private consultant to identify the slum areas in the city and an extensive mapping would be carried out.

When the officials said that 302 slum areas have so far been identified in the city, councillors objected to it and said that 52 areas have developed and wanted it to be removed from the list.

Officials said that Mayor and the Corporation Commissioner should forward a letter for making changes in the list.

After the survey is over in a month, slums would be selected and a project report would be prepared for implemented.

Nearby areas

Currently, of the total slum areas, 69 areas were found to be in objectionable areas and hence houses for these families should be constructed in nearby areas, the official said.

Mayor S. Soundappan, Commissioner M. Ashokan, V. Shanmugasundaram, State Coordinator, AAY, V. Subramanian, Superintending Engineer, TNSCB, S.P. Vasanthakumar, Executive Engineer, TNSCB-Salem, engineers and councillors were present.

Hyderabad-based private consultant conducting survey to identify slum areas.

 

Slum dwellers to be shifted to Ammankulam tenements soon

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The Hindu            05.02.2014

Slum dwellers to be shifted to Ammankulam tenements soon

Ready for occupation:Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board tenements at Ammankulam constructed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme.- Photo: K.Ananthan
Ready for occupation:Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board tenements at Ammankulam constructed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme.- Photo: K.Ananthan

The Coimbatore Corporation would soon initiate measures to move to the Ammankulam tenements, the urban slum dwellers that lived along water bodies on encroached land.

The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) that had constructed the flats was ready to hand them over. Once the formal handing over was complete, the Corporation would start the process of handing them over to beneficiaries whom it had already identified.

The first to go and occupy the tenements would be the slum dwellers from the Highways Colony on Trichy Road, who occupied the Valangulam banks, said Mayor S.M. Velusamy a few days ago.

As and when the Corporation handed over the flats to the beneficiaries, it would mark the beginning of the next step in its efforts to rehabilitate the urban slum dwellers. At Ammankulam, 729 flats are ready for occupation.

Though the TNSCB had constructed 1,608 flats, it had to scale down the number after two apartments — 2B and 4B — sunk 50 cm and 25 cm triggering the need to demolish the top floors to restore stability to the structures. The sinking happened in 2010.

The Corporation had asked the TNSCB to construct the tenements under the Central Government’s Basic Services for Urban Poor programme of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission project. The Government had also given more than 50 per cent of the project cost. Mr. Velusamy said that the Corporation had also decided to handover 20 acres to the TNSCB to construct 5,000 flats to complete the housing project for the urban poor. The 20 acres it had identified was in Vellalore and part of the Vellaore compost yard land.

Once the construction of 5,000 flats was complete, it would take the total number of houses constructed to more than 12,000. The TNSCB had constructed 7,000 apartments at Ukkadam.

He added that the Corporation deciding to hand over the 20 acre was based on a request from the TNSCB.

 


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