[Urbanstudy] After HRLN report Chennai won't Move More than 5000 Slum Dwellers at a Time'

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Wont-Move-More-than-5k-Slum-Dwellers-at-a-Time/2015/08/18/article2979345.ece


'Won't Move More than 5000 Slum Dwellers at a Time'By Express News Service

Published: 18th August 2015 03:43 AM


   - [image: A study by New Delhi-based NGO Housing and Land Rights Network
   focused on Kannagi Nagar | EXPRESS PHOTO]
   A study by New Delhi-based NGO Housing and Land Rights Network focused
   on Kannagi Nagar | EXPRESS PHOTO

CHENNAI:  After drawing flak for the massive resettlement of slum dwellers
in Kannagi Nagar, the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) has told the
National Human rights Commission (NHRC) that in future, the number of
tenements in each resettlement scheme would be restricted to 5,000. In a
report submitted to the NHRC after a complaint by Shivani Chaudhary,
executive director of the Housing and Land Rights Network, an NGO based in
New Delhi, the State Slum Clearance Board has assured the NHRC that there
would be redressal. The TNSCB said that they would look to ensure that
adequate compensation for the actual losses incurred was given to all
evicted and relocated communities on a priority basis.

The TNSCB also reacted to the study done on Kannagi Nagar by the NGO, which
was the basis of the complaint. The study charged the State with treating
the urban poor as ‘experimental subjects’ and forcing them out of the city
to a distant, uninhabitable site without understanding the adverse and
long-term socio-economic impacts of the resettlement and the multiple human
rights violations. “About 21,000 households have already been resettled in
Kannagi Nagar and Semmencherry. Another 31,912 will be evicted and shifted
to the settlement in Kannagi Nagar and Perumbakkam. In total, about 53,000
households have been evicted from their original places of habitation in
Chennai and relocated to these large resettlement colonies,” the report had
stated.

Commenting on the undertaking that the board gave to the rights body,
independent researcher and activist Vanessa Peter said that the State
lacked a policy on resettlement. “Until a policy is there, it will just
mean more lip service on carrying out resettlement,” she said.
“Resettlement of more than 500 people does require a policy. Since the
State has already said that each resettlement scheme would be reduced to
5,000, there should now be a thrust on evolving a State housing policy,
with rehabilitation and resettlement of urban poor as one of the
components,” Vanessa said. The Kannagi Nagar report was also severely
critical of the size of flats, which were in the range from 195sq feet to
310 sq feet — too small to live comfortably. Now the TNSCB has told the
NHRC that it would construct tenements with 400 square feet plinth area
each, which would have a multi-purpose room, lockable bedroom, an
independent toilet and balcony.
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