Biometric survey under houses for urban poor scheme
The survey involved the scanning of the thumb impression of the beneficiaries and creating a database that contained their family details and other information required under the project that was being implemented by the civic body under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, an infrastructure development programme of the Central Government.Of the many mission schemes being implemented in 63 cities across the country, a prominent one was for creating slum-free cities. The Basic Services for Urban Poor scheme envisaged concrete houses and other facilities such as drinking water supply, drainage, roads and streetlights.
The biometric survey had already begun in a couple of wards in the city to register eligible families for the scheme. The latest one was for enabling the laying of a 40 ft scheme road to link Avanashi Road with Tiruchi Road ahead of the World Classical Tamil Conference.Deputy Mayor N. Karthik, who represents Ward 16, said on Saturday that the 240 families, with three to five members each, would be relocated in the multi-storeyed tenements the Corporation was building at Ukkadam and Ammankulam.
The huts in which these families lived for about 20 years encroached a canal and even either side of the water way. A 40 ft space on the eastern side of the canal was earmarked for the scheme road. The Anna Nagar slum was among the 172 in the city that the Corporation wanted to re-locate under the BSUP scheme.While 80 slums were on patta lands and houses were being built in the existing locations, the other 92 slums were on water bodies. The Deputy Mayor said the Corporation was constructing 9,600 houses and the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board 2,800 houses.
“The people are keen on shifting out after we told them about the benefits of the scheme and also about a court order that encroachments cannot be allowed on water bodies,” Mr. Karthik said. “We also told them specifically about the benefits of living in hygienic conditions, compared to those in the slums.”
