The Hindu: Kancheepuram: Thursday, July 27, 2017.
The Public
Works Department here on Wednesday served notices to encroachers on the
Vegavathy river bank within the Kancheepuram Municipal limits. The encroachers
had been asked to move out of the river bank within three weeks after the
receipt of the notice, failing which the department would step in and remove
the encroachments.
When the
encroachment issue was raised before the State Information Commission by an
activist under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in 2012, the PWD had
submitted an affidavit claiming that the Vegavathi was only a flood drain
channel originating from Thamal lake on the western side of the town.
The PWD,
however, had admitted in the affidavit that encroachments such as places of
worship, buildings and other infrastructures created under the
government-sponsored schemes, did exist on the river. The affidavit also said
that steps had been initiated to issue notices to the encroachers.
Initially,
the call to remove the encroachments on the river had not get the authorities
moving but the deluge during the rains in November 2015 had taken the town by
surprise. Several houses built along the river banks had submerged in the flood
waters.
Subsequently,
the officials realised the need to clear the encroachments on the river. To
begin with, they cleared the weeds and desilted the river bed. The slush
removed from the river had piled up along the banks. Finally, the PWD had
started issuing notices from Wednesday to the encroachers.
Alternative
site sought
Meanwhile,residents
facing eviction have presented a memorandum to the District Administration
seeking allotment of an alternative site. It is said that an alternative site
had already been identified by the officials on the Western outskirts of
Kancheepuram Municipality for relocating the families facing eviction.