Coimbatore corporation officials accused of closing petition without removing encroachments

COIMBATORE: Town planning officials of the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation have been accused of closing a petition on removing encroachments on the Saramedu-Karumbukadai Road without evicting the encroachers and just by attaching photos from elsewhere to show that they had removed the encroachments.

The Karumbukadai -Saramedu Area Association on Friday submitted a complaint regarding this to the corporation. In its petition, the association stated that its representatives filed a petition at the corporation’s grievance redressal meeting on Dec 16 to remove encroachments on the Saramedu-Karumbukadai Road. When the petitioners checked on the status of their petition, it was found closed without any action. The same petition was filed again on Dec 23, and the file was closed after attaching photos of encroachment removal from Race Course.

Moideen Abdul Kadar, a resident of Safa Garden and a member of the association, said, "We petitioned to remove encroachments on the Saramedu area, and the officials have attached photos of removing encroachments in Race Course. The case was assigned and closed by S Manjuladevi, a junior engineer. For the petition filed on Dec 16, the officials did visit, but just because a couple of people showed a patta copy, they simply left, stating that our complaint was baseless. It is the assistant town planning officer's duty to verify if the documents were authentic before concluding the case because the encroachments are on a 60-foot scheme road. The closed status is mentioned under the name of an officer who was transferred to another post three months ago."

Mayor R Ranganayaki told TOI that the issue would be taken to the commissioner's attention. “If there have been faults, action will be initiated against the person concerned," she said.

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