Activist urges Coimbatore corporation to develop park on retrieved OSR land

Coimbatore: An activist has urged the city corporation to reclaim and develop an encroached open space reservation (OSR) land parcel on Sri Ramakrishna Layout in ward 22. The demand follows a Madras high court ruling on April 16, dismissing all pleas filed by the layout developer.According to RTI activist S P Thiyagarajan, the Department of Town and Country Planning approved 3.50-acre Sri Ramakrishna Layout in 1990 with 33 individual plots. As per the planning norms, 10% of the land – comprising 36 cents for a park and 3 cents for common access - was designated as OSR land. Thiyagarajan said the developer, Narayanasamy, submitted a fraudulent layout plan to the Local Planning Authority in 2018 to regularize the park site, converting it into 10 residential plots. Following an RTI disclosure and subsequent public complaints, authorities revoked the regularization order. Civic officials then issued eviction notices, demolished the unauthorized structures, and fenced off the area. Challenging the eviction, Narayanasamy filed three petitions before the high court. He sought to overturn the cancellation of regularization order and demanded Rs30 lakh in compensation from the civic body for property demolition. A division bench of the high court recently dismissed all three petitions, clearing all legal hurdles for the corporation. Despite the clear court directive, the corporation has failed to initiate any development work on the site, the activist said. "The corporation should soon build a public park on the plot," Thiyagarajan said and warned that any further delay by the civic body might allow the encroacher to approach the Supreme Court, jeopardising the community's access to vital public lung spaces.