350 hutments in three slums gutted in 45 days

CHENNAI: More than 350 hutments in three slums across the city were gutted in fire in the last 45 days as rights activists allege it is a ploy to evict the slum dwellers even as police is investigating two of the cases.Fire Service Department sources told Express on Wednesday that three slums were gutted in the last 45 days. The blaze in Kakanji Nagar in Anna Nagar destroyed 40 hutments and was caused by an accident, the sources said, adding that police is investigating the cause of fire in Kesavan Pillai Park, where 196 hutments were gutted, and Thidir Nagar near Moore market that gutted over 100 hutments on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a day after the blaze in Thidir Nagar, the site is full of activity as the victims wait patiently to get enumerated by the State government officials.The struggle to get counted can be felt as women and their menfolk try hard to garner the attention of the tehsildar, who has ignored them. “Please enumerate us. We have the documents,” says Annadurai Vellamma while thrusting the documents before the official.  “The residents have been staying here since the zoo was shifted in 1988,” says R Geetha, the co-ordinator of National Campaign for Unorganised Workers, Southern region. She also alleged there was an attempt to evict them during the DMK regime and added that the blaze is always an eviction threat for slums. In Thidir Nagar, 50 per cent of the residents are basket weavers and the others street vendors.Interestingly, a 12-member fact finding team in 2009, including, Prof A Marx, activist, Karen Coelho, activist and M Venkat, a researcher at the Madras Institute of Development Studies had reported commonality in all blaze-hit slums with eviction notices presented to the dwellers prior to the fires.According to masterplan of CMDA, in Chennai City 75 pc of the houses are with roof made up of brick, stone, concrete and other materials of pucca nature, about 15 per cent are with semi-pucca roofing materials like tiles, slate, G I metal sheets and asbestos cement sheets, and about 10 pc (93.701) are with Katcha materials and are vulnerable to fire mishaps.But rights activists claim this should not be the sole reason to resettle the slum dwellers and shift them to far off places. “In Kannagi Nagar, one would be surprised that with over 1 lakh people staying in small and narrow buildings, the planners have failed to take into account that in case of a emergency or a fire disaster how can the people be rescued,” a rights activist said.