Eviction drive: Fishermen at Pattinambakkam's loop road protest

CHENNAI: Following the order from Madras High Court to remove shops encroached on the Marina beach Loop Road in Foreshore Estate, the civic body removed 55 shops on the stretch.

During the eviction drive, people conducted a road roko against the officers clearing the shops on Wednesday.

“As many as 55 shops were identified and cleared on Loop Road. The eviction process started around 8 am, but vendors staged road roko, which halted the work for a few hours. By evening, we were able to remove all encroachments. Since these are temporary encroachments, we did not issue any notice prior. But we had briefed them about the court’s direction on Tuesday,” said S Sheik Abdul Rahaman, regional deputy commissioner (Central), Greater Chennai Corporation.

The GCC cleared the encroachments 2 months ago, as several complaints were filed by the public on traffic congestion during peak hours. The civic body would ensure the temporary shops do not come back again to encroach on the road.

Fish vendors lamented against the court order, as their livelihood had been adversely impacted. They stated that the reason for traffic congestion was the road laid in the locality by the government.

“We’ve been selling here for all these years. The GCC mentioned that we’d be given an alternative place in 6 months, but till then where’d we go? They should have ensured that we were given relocation first. The system failed us this time,” lamented R Sasikumar, a fisherman in Pattinampakkam.

Previously, the government had relocated residents and shops encroached on the river bund after making alternative arrangements for the residents there.

“But our situation is completely different. Now we’re worried they’d remove our houses in the locality claiming as illegal encroachments,” he added.