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With Township resembling like a posh upper class colony, the
temporary settlements wear a shabby look without sanitation and facing
various health hazards. Even though the colonies such as Thandavankuppam,
Thedirkuppam and Mandarakuppam are called as Temporary settlements, they
exist from the day NLC and Neyveli Township came into the picture. The irony
is, those who came from far off places are enjoying the benefits of Neyveli
Township, people who were living in Neyveli right from the day's of
JumblingaMudaliar reside in this so called “temporary settlements”
almost for nothing, as the land did not belong to them.
For the
past one year, NLC is adopting an aggressive tactic in vacating their
employees from these areas. Some employees though have their allotted houses
in Township, live here making rent from their allotted houses. Many houses
in these temporary colonies were demolished. Owls and anti-social elements
use this demolished houses for their nocturnal activities much to the fear
of the colony people. Already these temporary colonies have high rate of
crime activities, adds woe to the people.
This recent
activity of NLC without any reason is shocking and puzzles the colony
people. Why is NLC doing this? If they want to vacate the whole colony, why
can't they do it and allot places in some other areas rather than the
current activities like demolishing some houses and inviting anti social
problems? The colony people, who were already reeling under various civic
problems, find it hard to understand the logistics of these aggressive
tactics of NLC.
Take for
instance the Thandavan Kuppam locality. It has a population of about 25,000
people. But it does not have proper sanitation or drainage facilities. The
open latrine suffocates even the pass by people. Pigs roam freely causing
various diseases. Why can't NLC take care of this colony when it is doing so
many facilities for Township? Why NLC officials are showing blind eye
towards the needs of these people? After all people in these area either
directly or indirectly work for NLC. Many of these people are contract
labors working in various fields of NLC. Many works are being done by these
labors and they can be said as one of the backbones of NLC's day-to-day
operations. Does not these workers at least deserve proper housing
facilities? Is it not the duty of an organization to provide these to their
hard working people? Even
though the argument is made that these are temporary settlements and will be
vacated any time, NLC needs the services of these people. In fact NLC can't
run many of its operations without the contract labors. Why can't a
permanent place be allotted, if not like township, at least with some basic
facilities provided to them?
It following fact will be hard to believe for any outsiders? But it's true.
These colonies got complete electricity only in the mid eighties even though
NLC is functioning from the fifties and supplying power to various parts of
TamilNadu. This indicates how NLC officials had total bias towards these
colonies even though they are doing so many benefits to the Township people.
The chairmanship of Mr. M.P.Narayan was a memorable period for these
colonies as many facilities like electricity, drinking water supply were
given. Never before that or never after that any one cared about these
people.
How does
these temporary colonies figure in NLC's scheme of things, in the future?
Will these colonies going to be vacated totally? Will there be any
improvements in the living conditions of these colonies? Future is just a
question for these poor people.
An article by A.Selvam - Editor - neyveliweb.com
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