Cooum eviction drive continues, 171 families relocated

Srinivasan sat forlornly, watching the house where he lived for decades, emptied of its meagre belongings. The senior citizen was visibly upset. “Since the last 10-15 years, we have been told by the officials to leave. We didn’t expect them to relocate our families this time. We didn’t even have time to remove our belongings from the homes,” rued the resident. 

The populace is distressed at the move to Perumbakkam, which is far from their places of work. Parthiban, another resident, said, “Our lives are here, including our workplaces and schools for the children. We are worried about going to Perumbakkam. We will be spending more time on travelling to and from the city, for work.” 

On Tuesday, in Anna Nagar (Ward 107), 108 houses were identified, and their families resettled in Perumbakkam. After the 2016 floods, 825 families living on the river banks have been resettled. 

On Wednesday, 18 conservancy workers and 20 trucks were engaged in the work. There were 58 school students and nine college students in the locality. The students will be transferred to schools in Perumbakkam. A special electoral drive was also conducted for the people, along with a medical camp. 

A press release from the Corporation stated that those families who did not receive an allocation in Perumbakkam will be surveyed with the help of NGOs and eligible applications will be forwarded for allocation of a housing unit. 

According to the Corporation, there were 14,257 encroachments on Cooum River and 9,687 on Adyar. As many as 825 families were resettled from Cooum while 4,134 families have been relocated from the banks of the Adyar river.