A number of residents from localities around Buckingham
canal, fearing demolition of their homes, met with officials at the
Ripon Buildings on Friday.

Facing intense pressure
from revenue officials, who crack down on encroachments on government
land, and Corporation officials, who have started identifying structures
violating Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms, residents in some
localities visited Ripon Buildings to express their fear of impending
demolition of their houses.

“They claim that they
will demolish our house on Saturday. We spent money on the purchase of
the land and registration of the sale of land. We are not encroachers.
Most of the plots do not have patta. Now officials have started a
survey,” said a resident who visited Ripon Buildings on Friday.

The
residents alleged that some officials of the revenue department had
warned them that their houses would be demolished. The scare has
intensified in some localities of Injambakkam after the civic body was
also asked to regulate structures in CRZ areas. Revenue officials,
however, have not issued notice to the residents on the removal of
encroachments.

“There is a fear that they will
demolish over 500 houses. We have sought the advice of our councillor to
save our homes. We are poor people who have purchased small pieces of
land and built homes for ourselves. The government officials registered
the sale of land but we were not aware that the lands did not have
patta,” said Panchavarnam, a hawker and a resident of Bethel Nagar in
Injambakkam. Most of the residents in such areas near Buckingham canal
are labourers.

Some of the residents, however, said
they supported the action against encroachments on the Buckingham canal
that passes through the locality. “Let them widen the canal. But the
government has to identify the actual problem and ensure that poor
people do not lose their savings invested in small houses of their own,”
said a woman resident.

According to revenue
officials, they had only sought the support of the Corporation to remove
encroachments near the Buckingham canal. The equipment for removing the
encroachment was sought by the revenue department from the civic body.

Officials
of the civic body said they would complete the identification of
authorised and unauthorised structures in CRZ areas near the canal and
along the shore soon.

Corporation officials are now
gearing up to face protests by residents as the work on identification
of encroachments on government land and on CRZ progresses this summer.
The process of removing some of the encroachments is likely to be
intensified during the summer holidays to lessen the impact on
schoolchildren.