Tamil Nadu - Chennai

The ‘resettled’ are yet to settle down

Photo: M. Karunakaran.

LONG ORDEAL: Women wait at the only ration shop catering to the needs of Semmenchery, where thousands of people have been resettled in Slum Clearance Board tenements. —

CHENNAI: Last week, residents of Kannagi Nagar in Okkiyam – Thoraipakkam sent thousands of postcards to the State government demanding improvement of basic amenities in the locality. They had been relocated from slums to Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) tenements but lacked safe drinking water, adequate public transport and child care facilities.

The protest is a sign of the angst of those who have been resettled in houses provided by the TNSCB but without infrastructure required to support a sizeable population. The local body has not provided adequate civic services such as garbage clearance and drinking water supply.

In its policy note for 2008 – 09, the TNSCB said that it would undertake a massive construction programme to make Chennai “slum-free by 2013”. The project is to be taken up as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission under the ‘basic services for urban poor’ component. Semmenchery, Perumbakkam and Okkiyam – Thoraipakkam in the south and Tiruvottiyur in the north are some of the locations where new tenements are to be built.

These plans can work only if needs such as employment, sanitation, health care and transport are developed along with housing. Various government agencies would need to come together to do this.

Semmenchery resident S. Bhavani, who is six months pregnant, said the absence of good government hospitals in the vicinity was forcing her to travel up to Adyar for a check-up. There were only private hospitals nearby which the poor could not even dream of visiting, she said.

R. Parvathy, a resident of Kannagi Nagar, said, “Two people died on way to hospital and six women gave birth on way to Kasturba Government Hospital in Triplicane. We are forced to go to either Royapettah or Triplicane government hospitals for major ailments. The local primary health centre cannot provide treatment for everything.”

Semmenchery has only one ration shop to cater to the 6,000 families living here. The residents complained that buying there was very difficult due to the extremely long queues and bitter fights that often break out between groups of people. Many said that they were forced to take leave from work just to get their rations. “We come quite early in the morning to mark our spots in the queue and have to wait almost till sunset,” said Subash, a student.

Some families relocated from slums in Adyar, Greenways Road and Srinivasapuram complained that their monthly payment arrears were piling up as Slum Board officials were refusing to accept payment in instalments.

Residents of HLL Nagar in Tondiarpet relocated from Kasimedu and other localities in coastal north Chennai are happier when compared to families in Semmenchery as they live closer to the city’s hub.

However, hundreds of other families who could not be accommodated in Tondiarpet are still distraught. They are to be resettled in multi-storeyed apartments to be constructed in Tiruvottiyur. Many of the families live in the hutments along the Ennore Expressway. A group of about 50 families have gone back from the temporary shelters in Kargil Nagar and Ernavur to the cramped squalor of slums or footpaths in Kasimedu. Marimuthu, a fisherman said that children were not sent to school as they too worked to earn for the families.

The sudden influx of new residents has also raised conflicts with residents living there earlier. The responsibility to provide social infrastructure and civic services lies with the local Panchayat or Muncipality, which may not have sufficient funds to meet the sudden influx of people and demand on its resources.

Susedha, a resident of Thoraipakkam, said the tenements are built on low-level areas that were classified as flood plains or catchment areas. The tenements were looked at just as a construction project without the backup of infrastructure and protection of existing natural resources, she said.

Residents of Kannagi Nagar, adjacent to Thoraipakkam, get drinking water supply only once in four days and each family gets only seven pots. Rotting garbage and potholes mark the interior roads of Kannagi Nagar tenements.

A recent survey by a non-governmental organisation showed that Kannagi Nagar had a population of 61,790 residents and 753 were aged below six.

Inadequate child care and crèche facilities have caused anxiety for many women, who travel to the city to work as domestic help. They spend about Rs. 30 every day on share autos to travel to work.

(With inputs from Kannal Achuthan, Deepa H. Ramakrishnan and Vidya Venkat)

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