Even as a large section of nature lovers and activists were rejoicing over the clearing of thousands of houses from the Raja Vaikal canal near Aathupaalam here in the city, a sceptical thought process still remain as most of the major encroachers including industrial sheds and houses are to stay there.
According to sources, the canal which runs for a distance of 6.5 km from Aathupalam before reaching the Vellalore tank still be encroached upon by individual owners who have shrunk the width of the canal to a few meters from the initial 40 meters even after the eviction.
The current scenario where around 537 houses have been cleared from the Canal near Anaimedu, Cheran Nagar, Muthu Nagar and Anna Colony for a distance of Seven Acre plot on Tuesday – though not being a complete victory – is a hard fought battle of the volunteers of the Kovai Kulangal Paathukaappu Amaippu.
The association with the help of more than one thousand volunteers had been fighting to regain the canal from encroachments through various forms of activism. While the members approached the issue legally by taking the matter to the State Government’s perusal, they have hit the field and have cleaned and desilted a section of the canal.
“We initially started two years ago by filing close to 500 complaints to the Chief Minister’s Special Cell and followed it by petitioning the District Authorities. Later, we also petitioned CM Edappadi K. Palanisamy directly when he came to Coimbatore,” said R. Manikandan, Organiser of the association.
He further added that the members were involved in cleaning a Check Dam on the canal for more than three weeks at a cost of One Lakh rupees. “We had to manually remove wastes including plastic and even human wastes from the Check Dam as the water was clogging the path,” he told the Simplicity.
The members had also cleaned Vellalore tank at a cost upto Rs. 5 lakh with the help of a corporate organisation named Cameroon Manufacturers India.
Earlier in the year, District Collector called for an inter-departmental meeting to discuss about the issue and a survey was carried out by the Slum Clearance Board and Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation. The departments had reported that close to 1800 houses have encroached upon the lake adding that they should be given alternative houses.
Houses were allotted to around 1400 houses in areas including Vellalore and Arivoli Nagar and after a struggle of more than two years the eviction work started on Tuesday and is to continue till Wednesday. According to officials, the remaining persons who have not received their houses would also be provided residences in available quarters soon.
However, activists are still not happy with the eviction as some of the encroachments did not appear in the report since they were on patta land list. “We fear that parts of the land, which were once inside the canal had been given to people by converting it into patta. If these are not cleared soon, then the canal would still be useless,” said an activist from the city who further added that another representation would be made to the District Administration shortly to conduct a holistic survey of major encroachers and carry out a proper eviction.