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Fishermen plan signature campaign against new police station building planned at Nochikuppam
Even as the city police are pushing hard for the construction of a new building for D5 Marina police station on four grounds of land in Nochikuppam hamlet, fishermen in the locality are strongly opposing the move saying that the residents don’t even have space for basic facilities in the hamlet. The fishermen are planning to kickstart a signature campaign to press fo their demand.
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migrator
migrator
Chennai
“We are planning to organise a signature campaign urging the Police department to give up the proposal, which is against the wishes of the people in the hamlet,” said K Bharathi of South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association.
“It is the land allocated to the Police department for the construction of Marina station by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board. There is no need to take over it as it is already with us. For some obvious reasons, certain vested interests don’t want a police station there,” said City Police Commissioner AK Viswanathan, when DT Next contacted him.
However, Bharathi claimed that the land traditionally belonged to the fishermen community and wondered how the TN Slum Clearance Board could hand it over to the Police department.
“We used to have a community hall. It was converted into Amma canteen. Now, we don’t have a community hall. There is no place for kids to play, no park or library.Â
In such a situation, why do we need a police station? The police station is already functioning from a government land inside the premises where forensic headquarters is functioning. Why do they want to shift it to Nochikuppam village,” Bharathi questioned.
Mylai Nochikuppam Meenava Grama Sabai has already approached the Slum Clearance Board and Chennai Collector with a petition stating that the land traditionally belonged to the Nochikuppam village, which was taken over by the Slum Clearance Board in the 70s.Â
If needed, the Nochikuppam fishermen are also planning to rope in families from Nadukuppam and Ayodhyakuppam hamlet to press the demand.
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