Hc, Corporation Issue Orders, Encroachment Remains At Spot | Coimbatore News - Times of India

Source: The Times of India

Coimbatore: Barely a day after the Coimbatore corporation passed orders to remove a 35-year-old encroachment and retrieve the land on VCV Road based on a Madras high court direction, the civic body reversed the plan and postponed the retrieval exercise on Monday.

The civic body had cited the Lok Sabha election for postponing the eviction of encroachment.However, the move has upset activists who were fighting a prolonged legal battle for the land's retrieval.

They alleged that the postponement would pave the way for the encroacher to go for an appeal against the high court order.

They also questioned the city corporation's reversal of the decision at the last minute when the corporation commissioner as well as the district election officer had given the nod for retrieval a day back.

A division bench of the Madras high court had issued orders on March 28 to the Coimbatore corporation commissioner, the district collector, and a member of the local planning authority to remove encroachment of a public road as 'expeditiously as possible' from the defendant S Balasubramanian, a theatre owner.

The 21-cent land measuring 220 feet in length and 40 feet in width was a public road but was encroached by Balasubramanian and the pathway was blocked, according to the order.

The corporation had also issued a detailed proceeding order the next day, constituting two teams each comprising seven officials for the encroachment eviction. One team was led by assistant town planning officer S Govindaprabakar, while the other was led by town planning officer Kumar.

On Monday, however, the civic body dropped the move citing the election code of conduct. "We have won this legal battle after almost 35 years. With this postponement of the corporation's retrieval process, the chances for the encroacher to appeal the Supreme Court seeking a stay on this high court order is high," activist S P Thyagarajan said.

The efforts to reach senior corporation officers to obtain their comments on the postponement proved futile.