The Hindu 15.02.2013
Eviction not illegal: civic body
Stating that the eviction of nearly 110 persons from Thideer Nagar, Kannappar Thidal here was not illegal, the Chennai Corporation on Thursday submitted before the Madras High Court that it had already intimated the residents before they were evicted. The residents were informed about alternative accommodation through the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board within a reasonable time and they had also acknowledged it.
This was stated before the First Bench comprising acting Chief Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice K. Venkataraman by the Chennai Corporation Commissioner, Vikram Kapur, in his counter affidavit. His counter was in response to a large batch of writ petitions seeking a direction to the authorities to restore possession of the petitioners’ houses claiming the eviction was illegal. Mr. Kapur said the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu had requested the Corporation to hand over its public land adjacent to the Nehru Stadium for preparing a warm-up track and infrastructure work for the conduct of Asian Athletic Games this July. As per a Corporation Council resolution of July last year, the land was with the authority which had started the required infrastructure work. A portion of the Corporation land was also encroached upon by a group of people. Hence, they had to be evicted after being provided alternative accommodation. If the residents had been living at Kannappar Thidal for 17 years, either their names should have been included in the National Population Register list of the area or should have physically been in occupation of the encroached site while enumeration was done on January 11 and 12 this year.
