Chennai, 11 December (H.S.) : The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) has announced a major public campaign and a mass rally in Chennai to press the demand for housing pattas for poor and working-class families residing in urban areas.

This massive mobilization, scheduled for December 16, aims to gather a significant number of people for a march culminating in the submission of a petition to Chief Minister MK Stalin, highlighting the persistent struggle of landless residents.

CPM State Secretary P Shanmugam made the announcement while speaking to reporters in Chennai on Thursday. Shanmugam highlighted a critical issue, stating that approximately one-third of households across Chennai and its surrounding suburbs do not possess official land ownership documents, or pattas, despite having resided in their locations for decades.

He pointed out that while the Tamil Nadu government has made repeated announcements regarding patta schemes, numerous poor families continue to face difficulties in securing their land rights.

The party criticised the practice of labelling long-term residents as encroachers and denying them pattas based on land classifications such as water catchment areas, government land, railway property, or trust properties, even when local bodies have provided basic civic amenities like roads, drainage, water, and electricity, and collected property tax.

In his statement, Mr. Shanmugam also condemned the ongoing displacement of Scheduled Caste families from central Chennai under the guise of 'city beautification' drives and raised concerns about the inadequate living conditions faced by residents in relocation areas like Kannagi Nagar and Semmancheri.

The party put forth several key demands to the government: undertaking a state-wide land re-survey, granting pattas to all long-term residents on government and private land, issuing sale deeds and name transfers for allottees of the Housing Board and Slum Clearance Board, and regularising residents on temple lands by establishing fair rental agreements.

To forcefully press these essential demands, the CPI(M) plans to mobilize one lakh people for the mass petition march on December 16 at Swami Sivananda Salai.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Dr. R. B. Chaudhary