Chennai, Dec 11 (IANS) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has announced a major public mobilisation in Chennai on December 16, demanding that the Tamil Nadu government immediately issue house pattas to long-term urban residents who have lived for decades without legal ownership documents.
Addressing reporters in Chennai on Thursday, CPI(M) State Secretary P. Shanmugam said that nearly one-third of households in Chennai and its suburban areas still do not possess pattas, despite being permanent residents for several decades.
He said that successive governments have repeatedly announced patta regularisation schemes, yet poor and working-class families continue to struggle for their basic land rights.
Shanmugam stressed that rapid and unplanned urbanisation over the years has transformed unused waterbodies and open spaces into residential neighbourhoods.
In numerous cases, he said, it was the government itself that relocated communities onto poramboke lands and subsequently provided full civic infrastructure - roads, drinking water supply, drainage connections, electricity, schools and ration shops. In many areas, property taxes have also been collected for years.
"Despite all this, residents are still labelled as encroachers. They are denied pattas citing reasons such as water catchment classification, government ownership, railway land restrictions, or trust property disputes," he said, calling the situation unjust and insensitive for the urban poor families.
He said Scheduled Caste communities in central Chennai are particularly vulnerable, facing continuous displacement under ongoing "city beautification" initiatives.
The CPI(M) leader also flagged persistent issues faced by resettled residents in Kannagi Nagar and Semmancheri, who continue to struggle with inadequate services and incomplete rehabilitation commitments.
The party presented a detailed charter of demands, including a comprehensive re-survey of all land in Tamil Nadu, issuing pattas to long-term occupants on both government and private lands, providing sale deeds and facilitating name transfers for housing board and slum clearance board allottees, and regularising residents staying on temple lands with a fair and transparent rental system.
"To press these demands, the CPI(M) will mobilise one lakh people for a massive petition march on December 16 at Swami Sivananda Salai. The march will culminate in the submission of a petition to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin," Shanmugam said, calling the campaign a fight for dignity, justice and secure housing for all.
--IANS
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