Chennai floods: Slumlords force displaced to pay for houses they don't have

CHENNAI: Thousands of families displaced from the banks of the Adyar and other water bodies after the recent rain were paying rent to slumlords who preside over the illegal constructions.
Backed by politicians, these slumlords take possession of government land and rent out the shanties. In a city where 28.5% of the population lives in slums, it’s a big, ugly business.
Nearly 50,000 families live along the city’s waterways, including the Adyar and Cooum rivers and the Buckingham Canal, and some of them pay up to Rs 3,000 a month as rent to the slumlords. G Govindamma, who stays in Pallavan Nagar along the Cooum, says, “I pay Rs 1,500 rent and an additional Rs 500 as electricity charge to the owner. The owner has two houses here and he stays somewhere else”.
These sharks have not left the displaced in peace. “I could not go to work because of the floods but now I don’t know how to pay the rent. I have already incurred huge loss after water entered the house,” says Govindamma.
Some of her neighbours say the rent goes beyond Rs 2,000 and Rs 700 as electricity charge if the house is away from the banks. “We know these are illegal structures, but we have to pay if we have to stay here,” she adds.
In Saidapet, many families staying along the Adyar river said they were paying rent. “Many people here were paying for multiple huts, but now they are all washed away,” says Gaja Lakshmi.
In Koyambedu, several slum dwellers say these slumlords demand rent though they were shifted to relief camps after the floods.
Experts say these slum lords oppose the plan to shift slum dwellers to TNSCB tenements as the move will affect their revenue. Vanessa Peter, policy researcher at the Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC) who conducted surveys in several slums, says most slums are under the control of some people.
The government has not declared any new slums since 1985. So undeclared slums are left out of government schemes and lack amenities. In Kannagi Nagar, for instance, several beneficiaries have rented out their houses and returned to the banks of water bodies where they had been living.