Date:03/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/03/stories/2008120352800300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Erode

Encroachments on Erode-Karur Road remain

Staff Reporter

Department has fixed January 21, 2009 as the deadline to remove them

— PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN

No change: Two months after the accident on September 25 in Kasipalayam, near Kodumudi, encroachments on Erode-Karur Road remain intact, posing a grave threat to road users and the residents alike.

ERODE: On September 20, nine persons, including two children, were killed in a road accident on Erode-Karur Road in Kasipalayam village, near Kodumudi.

The accident occurred because the driver of a fly ash-laden lorry, proceeding to Virudhunagar, rammed against huts, which were right on the road edge, encroaching Highways Department’s land. The number of victims was high because when the accident occurred, they were sleeping.

The issue brought to fore the need to keep Erode-Karur Road free of encroachments. Soon after the incident, the State Highways Minister, district authorities visited the spot and promised to do the needful.

The Minister, after distributing relief assistance to the kin of the deceased, said alternative sites for the encroached would be provided, so that the Department’s land abutting the road could be cleared of encroachments.

The Department had identified 400 ‘temporary’ and ‘semi-temporary’ structures encroaching the Road, from Ganapathipalayam to the district border.

To date, two months after the accident, nothing much has changed. The accident spot remains as it was then: encroached.

The entire Kasipalayam village, it appears, is on encroached land.

Likewise, in Karanampalayam, Oonjalur and villages dotting the Road, the encroachments remain.

Asked about the inaction on the part of the Highways Department, an officer says they did issue a notice to remove encroachments on November 5. But as the residents had asked for time, the Department had fixed January 21, 2009 as the deadline.

He said the Department deferred the decision to remove the encroachments considering the Christmas, New Year and Pongal festive season.

In the officer’s estimate, around 400 huts had encroached on the Department land and the extent of encroachments varies from two metres to 20 m.

As part of the drive to remove encroachments, the district administration had then said it would provide alternative sites with title deed (patta) to the encroached to facilitate a smooth eviction.

Asked about the progress now, a Revenue Department officer said as there was no poromboke lands to be distributed, the Department had asked the Backward Classes Department, which is empowered, to acquire land. Officials in the Backward Classes Department could not bereached.

Meanwhile, buses and other speeding vehicles continue to ply pretty close to the huts, where sometimes children play on the road.