Noyyal River is one of the significant and historic river in the city of Coimbatore. Several decades back, Noyyal river was the reason for increased human settlement in the district of Coimbatore as agriculture flourished in the areas adjoining the Noyyal belt. But at present, the state of the Noyyal river seems to be very critical. Years of dumping, sand mining and re-routing of sewage into the river beds has almost disguised the river.
Now, it's further more dis-heartening to know that people have started to build homes and work places on the river bed itself, which is kind of stabbing on the heart of the river.
The residents of Poonga Nagar, Aathupalam have been raising complaints to all concerned government departments on a person named Sahabuddin, who has built a shed right on the Noyyal river bed. When locals inquired about this to Sahabuddin he has stated that he has purchased the land and has a patta for it.
Not convinced by his reply, the residents of the region shared this issue to Syed of Osai Trust. Upon verifying, Syed also found that the alleged person has encroached the river bed.
Speaking to Osai Syed on the issue he shared that "After learning on the encroachment, I met Sahabuddin and inquired him regarding it. Sahabuddin was very determined that he holds a legal patta for this piece of land. Shocked by his answer, I asked him to show his documents for which he replied that he would show the documents only to government officials, if probed.
Meanwhile, the residents apprised me that they have escalated this issue to the Corporation and the PWD department several times but none of them acted upon it. According to the Noyyal River Protection Act, there should not be any kind of construction within 5 meters of distance surrounding the river. But Sahabuddin has put up the shed right on the river bed and that too with a legal patta. We suspect a major foul play in this incident. A legal probe should be conducted to know if the patta is legal, if so, who has issued this patta to him for a land on the river bed?' Syed questioned.
A request was sent to Corporation Commissioner Dr. K.Vijayakarthikeyan, who has assured to conduct a probe to know if it was actually encroached, if so assured legal action with immediate effect'.
Today, UmaBharathi Revenue Inspector (North region) inspected the location and verified the complaints of the residents. She also met Sahabuddhin and got the Xerox copies of the Land Patta and the annexing documents. Based on the reports submitted by the Revenue Inspector, Umabharathi, Corporation Survey Inspector will visit the spot to survey the land.
