CHENNAI: Encroachments on Mariamman Koil Street at Manapakkam, off the Manapakkam-Gerugambakkam highway, were removed on Monday. Officials of the state highways and revenue departments, who conducted the removal drive with the help of police and Greater Chennai Corporation officials, said it was as per a court order, while owners of the shops that were razed claimed they were not informed when the survey was conducted.
Mathiazhagan, assistant director and encroachment officer of the state highways department, said the encropaching shops were removed following a report by the Alandur tahsildar after a private party filed a case. A road widening project is in the pipeline, but the current drive was held following a court order, he said. Alandur tahsildar Tulasi V said that the shop owners concerned were summoned on August 7 when the survey was conducted based on the court direction. “There is a contempt case as well. We found that their patta is fake and we have records showing it belongs to the highways department and it is a road. On August 21, the case will come up again in Madras high court,” he said.
Corporation officials who were present at the spot said the removal was done by the highways department which owned the land and that they just accompanied the highways officials.
The Manapakkam-Gerugambakkam highway is about 6km long but only a few shops are being removed, some of the affected shop owners alleged. “We want the highways to survey the road and if it is an encroachment, we are ready to evacuate. But they are doing this only to support a private builder. How come all other shops on the road are not being removed,” wondered J Soundarajan, whose shops was demolished. He was 51 years old and had been running the shop for a lonbg time, Soundarajan said, addingf that his father had been working in the same shop. “The private builder owns about 21,600 sqfeet of land there and for his sake we are asked to evict. If the highways removes on both sides for road widening, we are ready to cooperate,” he said.