A group of residents of Dr. Santosh Nagar at Egmore petitioned the Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) on Wednesday, requesting waiver of the “beneficiary contribution” demanded from them for the allocation of new houses, and swift allocation of the houses.
According to the petitioners, around 250 families living in the TNUHDB tenements at Dr. Santosh Nagar, along with another roughly couple of hundred families living around the tenements, were evicted in January 2020 as the Board decided to demolish and reconstruct the tenements as high-rise buildings because the old buildings had become dilapidated.
While they were initially promised that the reconstructed apartments would be handed over to them by July 2021, the construction was delayed by COVID-19 and for other reasons.
R. Parameshwari, one of the petitioners, said the residents were struggling for nearly four years as they had to live in rented houses. “During COVID-19, many of us lost work. Yet, we had to pay a minimum monthly rent of ₹5,000,” she said.
The residents said that for the allocation of newly constructed houses, the Board was demanding a beneficiary contribution of ₹42,000 from those residing in old TNUHDB apartments and ₹1.5 lakh from those residing without permission at the site .
“We were not informed of this when we were asked to evacuate in 2020. We have already spent so much out of our pocket because of the delay. How can we pay more,” Ms. Parameshwari asked.
The petitioners demanded that the beneficiary contribution be waived or at least converted into a nominal monthly instalment.
An official from the department said the beneficiary contribution was set at the minimum of ₹ 1.5 lakh though the cost of construction per apartment unit was around ₹14.5 lakh. The official said ₹1.5 lakh is demanded from only those who were earlier living at the site in temporary constructions without permission. Those who were legitimate allottees earlier had to pay only ₹42,000 and the majority of them had agreed to do so. He said the Board was in talks with the others and informed them that it could help them borrow from financial institutions for the payment.
Pic by M. Karunakaran
