The Revenue Department on Monday started demolishing houses of people belonging to Scheduled Castes on the banks of Samalapuram tank in Tiruppur district after the Water Resources Department of the Public Works Department declared them as encroachments.
Officials, in the presence of police force, started the demolition works on Monday morning, around a month after the Water Resources Department served eviction notices to 135 families.
Sources with the Revenue Department said that the plan was to demolish 80 to 100 houses on Monday.
There are nearly 300 houses, mostly belonging to Dalits, in areas including Karupparayan Street which fall under ward 10 of Samalapuram town panchayat of Palladam block. A total 135 houses were built on encroached lands, according to the Water Resources Department.
The residents had staged multiple protests after receiving the eviction notices. Several rounds of talks were held and the residents sought compensatory tenements for the evicted families at Sendevipalayam within the same town panchayat.
Senior officials of the Revenue, Water Resources and the Police Departments were present during the eviction process. Some of the residents wept while a few others agitated as the houses they lived in for several years were razed by earthmovers.
Some political parties, organisations and Dalit rights activists had demanded the government to allot pattas for the evicted families.
