The Hindu 15.07.2009
Encroachers will have to leave water bodies: Corporation
Special Correspondent
| Slum dwellers will be re-located in good tenements, says Commissioner |
Photo: S. Siva Saravanan 
ASSERTIVE: Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra (right) explains to councillors at an emergency meeting of the Council on Tuesday that people in slums encroaching water bodies will have to be re-located. Mayor R. Venkatachalam (second right) is in the picture. –
COIMBATORE: People living on water bodies such as tanks and canals in the city must shift to tenements that will be constructed for them under the Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP) project, Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra told councillors at the Corporation Council’s emergency meeting on Tuesday.
A discussion on this issue saw resistance from many elected members to the Corporation’s plan to re-locate slum dwellers. The BSUP project is being implemented under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission to create slum-free cities.
When Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) member M.S. Velmurugan demanded that slum dwellers must be provided pattas to build houses where they lived now, the Commissioner said the member should not confuse patta with encroachment.
Mr. Mishra referred to orders by the Supreme Court and Madras High Court and the Government’s stand that encroachments should not be allowed on water bodies.
An official also said that the courts had clearly categorised settlements on water bodies as encroachments that should be removed. The Commissioner said the BSUP provided for building houses where the urban poor lived now, if they already had patta for the site they occupied.
As for those encroaching water bodies, more than 9,000 houses (in multi-storeyed tenements) would be built and basic amenities would be provided in the colony. The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board was construction another 3,000 houses. Both the projects would provide better living conditions to these people. When Mr. Velmurugan said re-location would be unfair as people were used to the facilities in the place they lived now, the Commissioner said better facilities would be provided to them in the new location. “The BSUP scheme is one of the major tools for creating slum-free cities, as part of this nation-wide programme,” he said.