The Coimbatore Corporation has embarked on a drive to remove encroachments on Open Space Reservation (OSR) lands and to have the the title deeds of these properties transferred to itself.
Under the ongoing drive, the civic body has so far retrieved 1,137 plots and obtained ownership. The Corporation said that while preparing residential layouts of apartments and gated communities, if the property measures more than 65 cents, 10 per cent of the site should be transferred to the civic body’s name. The civic body would, in turn, use this site to create parks or community halls.
As per official records of the Coimbatore Corporation, there are over 2,000 OSR plots of lands, spanning 900 acres. However, the civic body has been lax in getting the necessary documents from property promoters and there have also been delays in the process of gifting these plots to the civic body. This resulted in encroachments mushrooming on such sites.
Tamil Nadu OSR Reserved Sites Association secretary S.P. Thiyagarajan said the Corporation’s website states that there are more than 250 reserved sites that have been encroached upon, and pointed out that the civic body should take expeditious steps to claim these sites.
Corporation Commissioner M. Sivaguru Prabhakaran said that the civic body conducted an inspection which revealed that there were 2,232 OSR sites. The Corporation has approached the Revenue Department to transfer the titles of 1,842 sites to that of the Coimbatore Corporation. So far, the Revenue Department has transferred 1,137 sites. For the remaining sites, an appeal has been preferred with the Collector for speedy name transfers. He also said that the drive would continue.
