Jeeva Nagar folk vacate houses

Coimbatore: After fighting a long and tedious battle for more than eight months to retain ownership of the land, residents of Jeeva Nagar near Kavundampalayam in the city have finally vacated their houses, which would now be demolished by the city corporation in a week.

In 2017, the Madras high court had directed the civic body to evict the Jeeva Nagar residents based on a petition moved by the members of KK Pudur welfare association, saying 1km of 70ft link road was encroached.

When the city corporation started to evict the occupants in February, the residents staged a protest, stalling the demolition drive.

In July, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board disconnected power supply to all the 252 houses in the locality based on the civic body’s request. Subsequently, half of the residents moved to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board’s (TNSCB) housing unit in Keeranatham.

A month after disconnecting the power supply, the city corporation, along with TNSCB, demolished about 75 houses. However, they stopped the demolition drive as protests gained momentum.

However, at a meeting held by senior corporation and district administration officials on Tuesday, the residents agreed to move out of their houses.

A L Raja, a resident, said they had urged the officials to provide them houses at TNSCB’s housing unit near Kappikadai bus stop in Saravanampatti, which falls under the city corporation limits.

“The officials agreed to it. For now, we have moved to rented houses and relatives’ houses. The officials said they would give us tokens in five months as construction works are yet to be completed at the housing unit in Saravanampatti,” he said, adding, “A total of 120 families are yet to receive alternative accommodation.”

Corporation commissioner J Sravan Kumar said houses would be allotted to them in two-three months.