Protesters lay siege to TNSCB housing unit at Sengulam

Trichy: Condemning the delay in permitting beneficiaries from occupying the housing unit of Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) at Sengulam, the beneficiaries along with CPM cadres laid siege to the housing unit on Friday.

Even as a month has passed since it was formally inaugurated by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, the housing unit is yet to be thrown open for use. The delay in payment of several taxes to Trichy Corporation was cited as the reason.

The TNSCB housing unit project was set up at an outlay of Rs 46.35 crore at Sengulam colony in Palakkarai having 685 units, including for the slum dwellers earlier residing there but relocated to enable construction works.

A majority of the beneficiaries are sanitary workers whose work location are in and around Palakkarai. As a part of the relocation, the sanitary workers were said to be residing in rental houses far away from the workplace, much to their inconvenience.

“Even the tokens assuring a housing unit in the facility were provided to 390 beneficiaries by TNSCB but there was no development in the last few months to rehabilitate the beneficiaries. We were told that TNSCB has not paid the taxes including water tax to the civic body resulting in an unreasonable delay in opening the facility,” said G Vetriselvan, executive committee member of CPM participating in the agitation.

As the agitation continued for more than an hour, TNSCB officials rushed to the spot and pacified the protesters by assuring that the beneficiaries identified would be accommodated into the housing unit within a couple of weeks.

“We have initiated a payment of Rs 10.46 lakh to the Trichy Corporation for various taxes including for facilitating underground drainage connections. By next week, the beneficiaries can occupy the allotted units,” a TNSCB official told TOI. However, the official refused to explain the delay in paying the mandatory taxes towards the civic body.