552 houses razed, water body saved

Hundreds of families who settled down in Masjid Colony in Ukkadam here over the past several decades were moved out and the encroached lands retrieved. As part of its drive to retrieve encroached lands, the Corporation had issued notices to the encroachers asking them to evict.

Alternative housing arrangements were also provided to them by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) at TNHB tenements.

Although a majority of the families shifted to the TNSCB tenements, many, however, continued to live on the encroached land along with their relatives. Despite repeated reminders, they failed to move out of the locality.

Following this, the Coimbatore Corporation Special Officer, J Shravan Kumar, issued orders to demolish the houses built encroaching the lake bund.

Acting on his directions, a team of 75 staff led by Corporation Town Planning Officer Ravichandran and accompanied by police personnel reached the spot with five earth-movers.

Even as demolition of the houses commenced, families residing in the locality broke into an argument with the officials. They argued that they had been living in the area for generations and that shifting them elsewhere would affect their livelihood and also affect the education of their children. Many women began to weep, pleading with the officials to stop razing their houses down as they claimed they had no place to go to.

However, Corporation officials said the number of families settled down in the locality for long were enumerated and provided alternative housing facility in housing board tenements.

“However, they have been asking housing allotments for their relatives too. We have asked the claimants to furnish documents for further consideration,” said an official overseeing the demolition drive.

The officials then had almost all the houses razed down, save for temporarily leaving around 50 houses where families were still residing.