Disappointment and dejection are writ large on the faces of the residents of Elango Street at Govindasamy Nagar, the roughly 600-metre stretch that connects Greenways Road and Kamarajar Salai and runs parallel to the Buckingham Canal. The drive that began in the last week of April to remove their houses and the tragic incident of a man taking his own life in protest against the eviction have made this area, notified as a slum in 1973, the focus of the often-raised problems about slum evictions.
The demolitions have now been suspended following the death of V.G. Kannaiyan, 58, who immolated himself. With the Supreme Court, on May 10, reiterating its earlier order to remove the houses located on the land classified as “watercourse poramboke”, many residents are trying to reconcile themselves to the imminent demolition.
Easwari*, whose family is among the 323 to be evicted, is looking at an uncertain future. She has two young daughters. Her husband, a diabetic, works as a delivery partner of a food delivery company. They lived in a roughly 220-square foot portion they had constructed above her in-laws’ house.
