The Madras High Court has directed Greater Chennai Corporation officials to pay a visit to those residing in tin houses and under thatched roof around Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) apartments, now under redevelopment, at KP Park in Egmore, and provide adequate medical facilities to them.
Justices M.M. Sundresh and P.T. Asha also sought for a detailed report from the Corporation on facilities provided to those people. The interim order was passed on a public interest litigation petition filed by G. Selva of Communist Party of India (Marxist) against converting the apartments into an isolation ward for COVID-19 patients.
In response, a Special Government Pleader informed the court that the apartments were being used as a relief centre and as isolation wards only as a temporary measure and that the flats would be allotted to the intended beneficiaries after the threat of COVID-19 subsides. The Division Bench recorded his submission and deferred the hearing by three weeks.
“After all, these patients affected with COVID-19 cannot use the place forever, meaning it can only be used till the requisite quarantine period. In such view of the matter, we direct the respondents to file their counter affidavits,” the judges said and adjourned the case to June 11 after ordering that the allotment orders should not be cancelled.
In his affidavit, the litigant had said, though some of the former residents of the TNSCB tenements had moved to rented premises when the redevelopment began, others chose to reside in tin houses around the apartment complex until they got the flats re-allotted.
