Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare and Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin on Saturday met a group of residents from Lock Nagar, Sivarajapuram and a few other nearby localities along the Buckingham Canal in his constituency.
The meeting happened in the backdrop of the government’s project for the eco-restoration of 2.9-km stretch of the canal along the Swami Sivananda Salai to Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, in which the families living along on the banks for many decades are likely to be impacted.
One of the residents said that a few representatives from the group had a brief and cordial interaction with the Minister. They submitted a petition, requesting Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin to visit the area to assess the situation before any further steps were taken. “We told him that we are not encroaching on the canal. We live on its banks. The government can clean the canal and build a boundary wall along its banks,” the resident said.
The representatives expressed concern over eviction and resettlement to far away places. According to the people, Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin asked them not to worry about any such forced eviction and said that the government was focussing only on cleaning the canal. He assured them that he would visit the localities within the next few days, the residents said.
