Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has come out with a massive housing scheme for those who lost their houses in the recent floods which ravaged many parts of the State. She has also decided to relocate all people who stay along the banks and embankments of rivers and water bodies who bore the maximum brunt of the floods.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister has asked a special financial package of Rs 7,250 crore from the Union Government to implement the scheme. This is in addition to the Rs 8,500 crore assistance the State has sought to meet the losses suffered in the floods.
Jayalalithaa said that 50,000 families living along the banks of Adyar and Cooum Rivers and the Buckingham Canal have been surveyed and identified. “All of these people would require to be provided alternative housing in order to ensure that they do not continue to live in a very precarious location with their lives and dwelling places at perpetual risk and also to ensure free flow in these important waterways of Chennai City,” said Jayalalithaa.
According to the CM, her Government would be able to accommodate 25,000 families in tenements already constructed and under construction by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board. For the remaining 25,000 families and for a further 25,000 families residing in the vicinity of other water courses and water bodies in Chennai City and its suburban areas, the TN Government has prepared a project to construct 50,000 multi-storeyed tenements on various pieces of land that are available with the State Government.
This massive special housing project will cost Rs 5000 crore and Jayalalithaa wants the Centre to finance the scheme. She also said that 50,000 houses in the vicinity of water bodies in the city and suburbs which suffered damages in the floods. The Chief Minister has requested the Prime Minister to allocate Rs 750 crore to reconstruct these 50,000 houses.
Jayalalithaa has also requested the Prime Minister to make a special allocation of 1 lakh houses additionally for the flood affected rural areas of the State at an enhanced unit cost of Rs 1.5 lakh per house which will cost the exchequer Rs 1500 crore taking the bill to a total of Rs 7250 crore.
Her move to relocate the houses along the rivers and water bodies is seen as a response to the suggestion made by Union Minister for urban development M Venkaiah Naidu.