The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has alleged that Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) officials asked for Rs 5.5 lakh to provide permanent housing to residents of a homeless shelter in Chennai's Kannappar Thidal. The party issued a statement on Friday, December 30, demanding that the Tamil Nadu government immediately provide better accommodation free of cost to the families forced to reside in what it termed as unlivable conditions in a homeless shelter in Kannappar Thidal. A total of 128 families residing there, mostly pavement dwellers who had earlier occupied Chennai Metro Water property near the Ripon Building, have been waiting for two decades for a permanent home and have filed several petitions in this regard. Alleging that a Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) official has now demanded money to provide housing, CPI(M) has condemned the move and asked the Tamil Nadu government to provide decent homes to the residents free of cost
After being displaced and moved to the shelter home, the families were promised permanent homes within three months back in 2001, by the then J Jayalalithaa government. Three months ago in September, their biometric data was collected by a private firm called Impact Technologies, in the presence of police, GCC, and Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) officials.
According to the statement issued by G Selva, CPI(M) Central Chennai district secretary, after the biometric data was collected, a GCC official told the residents that each new house would cost them Rs 5.5 lakh, of which Rs 5 lakhs could be taken as a loan from private financial institutions with the assistance of GCC, but Rs 50,000 would have to be paid as an advance. The CPI(M) leader said that this proposal was unacceptable.
Most residents of the homeless shelter are from Scheduled Caste communities, and have been living in the homeless shelter in cramped, untenable conditions for the past 20 years, the statement said. It added that 20 years ago, the then AIADMK administration evicted 64 families residing along the streets near the Ripon Building in Egmore constituency. “The displaced families were housed in a building near Kannappar Thidal that lacked basic amenities. Despite several regime changes, the promised housing was not provided. The population has grown to 128 households in the last twenty years, and they have been living in uninhabitable dwellings,” it said.
Selva’s statement further said, “It is unjustifiable to keep over a hundred families, including children, the elderly, and widows, in an uninhabitable, dilapidated residence for twenty years. The government's neglect to provide a decent home for these families, the majority of whom are Dalit, is condemnable.” CPI(M) has requested the Tamil Nadu government to directly inspect the area and take measures to provide decent homes to the residents without demanding money.