Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

When leaders made a beeline for fire-hit slums

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI June 4. The recent fire at Jyothiammal Nagar in Saidapet, just before the constituency went to the polls, attracted a beeline of top-rung politicians, including the PWD Minister, O.Paneerselvam, the Finance Minister, C.Ponnaiyan, and the Mayor, M.K.Stalin.

Another fire in Sivashanmugapuram Puram, Otteri, which followed the Saidapet mishap, too attracted a similar line-up.

When a fire in Ambedkar Nagar in K.K.Nagar destroyed about 2,000 huts in April, there were hardly any high-profile visitors present to comfort the victims. At least five of the hut dwellers were injured in the blaze and were hospitalised, but even weeks later they were battling for the compensation due them.

There are few permanent housing schemes for the many fire-prone slums that dot the city. For instance, the Ambedkar Nagar slum in K.K.Nagar experiences fire mishaps almost every year, but the Government has no rehabilitation scheme for them.

Construction of AC sheet housing to replace thatched huts has reduced the incidence of slum fires to a great extent, but the scheme has hardly matched the mushrooming of slums all over the city. Besides, the asbestos roof is hardly conducive to the hot climate in the metro.

The Government has started construction of brick houses for slum dwellers with Mangalore tiled roofs, but these are not better insulators against the heat.

Families affected in slum fires are awarded a paltry Rs.500 to 2,000, depending on the destruction caused, five kilos of rice, a saree and a dhoti. But the relief material provided them hardly helps to reconstruct their lives.

For politicians, slum fires are apparently a good constituency. In the Sivashanmugapuram incident, the Slum Clearance Board and the Chennai Corporation claimed that more than 200 huts were destroyed, while the Fire Service department placed the number at 50.

Officials always shy away from explaining such discrepancies.

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