Corporation evicts homeless people from near Egmore railway station

According to an official with the Chennai Corporation, the evicted families would be accommodated at a newly constructed shelter on Kannapar Street temporarily. “We have written to Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Board seeking tenements for the evicted. Once houses are allocated, they can move in there,” the official said.

Vanessa Peter, a policy researcher of the Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), alleged that the authorities failed to give prior notices to the homeless families.

“They took the belongings of the homeless persons in a lorry and took them to the new shelter. The families have been living near Egmore railway station for generations, doing odd jobs. The civic body should have allocated permanent houses to the families before evicting them,” she said.

A homeless person, who was evicted on Saturday, lamented that his livelihood is based in and around Egmore railway station. “The authorities are moving us out without disclosing the location of houses allotted to us,” he added.

The civic body runs more than 50 shelters for the urban homeless and persons, who are willing to reside at the shelter and are given food and accommodation. However, the civic body could not force homeless persons into the shelters.

Homeless persons, who are living with families, were refusing to go to the shelters as there are no family shelters in the city. The civic body has separate shelters for men, women and children.