Auto driver takes on politico over encroached property

CHENNAI: He looks unassuming and plies around the city an autorickshaw that he says is ‘tourist friendly’, but G Thangaraj is not the stereotype autorickshaw driver who haggles with customers over fares. The 33-year-old has fought a legal battle against a sitting councillor for close to one-and-a-half years and freed government land off the Cooum of encroachment.
In late 2013, Thangaraj, a resident of Bharati Nagar, found that the councillor of Thiruverkadu municipality KPS Illayaraja, a DMDK member, had begun building two houses on five grounds of land reclaimed from the Cooum. Of them, one was earmarked for an anganwadi, the foundation stone for which was laid by local MLA and state OBC and minorities minister S Abdul Rahim. Single storey houses were also built on a nullah which drained excess water from the locality to the river.
Thangaraj petitioned PWD officials as well as the Integrated Child Development Services department informing them about the illegal structures. The letter was sent to the district collector. “Yet action was not forthcoming. In fact, a PWD official came to the spot claimed that the ‘owner’ had a patta. But when I asked him to show records, he backtracked,” Thangaraj said.
In January 2014, Thangaraj filed a writ petition with the Madras high court and thus started the legal battle. “Initially, the revenue department removed a portion of the nullah and claimed that they cleared the encroachments,” Thangaraj, who chose to attend court sessions than ferry commuters on his autorickshaw, said.
The court, while admitting the PIL, sought a compliance report. During a subsequent hearing, the tahsildar submitted that he didn’t have jurisdiction over the land on which the encroachments stood. The PWD was made party to the case in February 2015 by the court. Despite, that the PWD dragged its feet. Only after the court warned the executive engineer concerned of contempt proceedings, the encroachments were removed in October 2015, said Thangaraj. By the time the land was freed, Thangaraj had spent 30,000 from his meagre earnings.
“I forwent my earnings to attend the court and was on the brink of being physically harmed. This needn’t have been the case if the authorities had taken action when I first petitioned them,” he said. Even now, no criminal proceedings have been initiated against the councillor nor has the river bed been reclaimed by the PWD department, he said.
When TOI contacted Illayaraja, he said he had built an anganwadi for the children in the locality but denied that it was blatant misuse of his position. “The autorickshaw driver has a personal grudge against me and that is why he went to court,” he said.
TOI spoke to state government officials involved in the case to find out if similar complaints of citizens relating to public interest were brushed aside, forcing them to approach court. A PWD official said the department was not informed of the encroachment directly and took action only after court direction. “We take note of all complaints,” he said.