Boards ‘reassuring’ encroachers shock residents in Pallavaram

First, the municipality was flayed for eating into the lake bed for construction of municipal solid waste management infrastructure. Then, it was pulled up for building a drain across the lake. Following the alleged scams surrounding the ongoing restoration work by the Pallavaram Municipality on the Periya Eri, residents of the locality were already irked at the officials for failing to truly bring back the lake to life and remove existing encroachments. 

But they were shocked when they saw four flex boards erected along four sides of the lake, proclaiming that the restoration of the waterbody would be taken up without removing the encroachments. The shape of the lake will be retained during the restoration process. This was on the orders of the Commissioner of Pallavaram Municipality. 

David Manohar, an activist with Arappor Iyakkam, first spotted the boards and then sent out a complaint to the other municipality officials. He also sent it to the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) officials, who have been firmly removing encroachments on waterbodies, following the Madras High Court ruling to restore these eco-sensitive structures.

“The residents knew that the officials will dodge us saying that they will remove the encroachments, while letting the status quo remain. But to put it into black and white saying that these encroachments won’t be touched is brazen,” said the activist. “Following the complaints, the boards were removed by the evening,” he added.

When contacted, a Revenue department official from the municipality said that the encroachments would be dealt with, despite the fiasco with the boards. “Several teams have been formed to deal with encroachments. Only yesterday, we removed 65 encroachments in Medavakkam, for the restoration of the lake. The work for the demolition has been going on since 2015. It is not possible to remove all encroachments in a day. But there is a will to do that and all steps are being taken. Since everything is digitised, pattas cannot be granted for the encroached areas of the lake. One by one, the encroachments will be removed, and waterbodies restored,” said the official.

Encroachers on Soolaithangal lake bed evicted      

Chennai: The Tambaram Revenue officials on Monday removed the encroachments from the Soolaithangal lake in Medavakam near Pallikaranai. The officials said all the 120 buildings will be demolished by Friday. The officials had issued eviction notices to the encroachers after allocating houses for them at Perumbakam slum clearance Board. They were removed as there was no response from them even after repeated warnings. The officials, along with Tahsildar and a police team from Pallikaranai, went to the spot and started eviction on Monday. There are 118 encroached buildings and 80 of them are houses.