Land for special school encroached

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Chennai: The land allotted by the state government in 1994 to build a special school for deaf students at Alapak­kam in Maduravoyal has been encroached by miscreants.
 
A hotel and houses have been built on the land. Even after the hearing impaired moved the Mad­ras high court twice and got orders in their favour, the private firms continue with their business as authorities concerned fail­ed to take action. The hapless victims have now app­roached the chief minister’s cell seeking justice.
 
Talking to Deccan Chro­nicle, general secretary Jamal Ali and president V. Swaminathan of the Tamil Nadu Federation of Deaf Persons said, “It  has been 20 years now. In all, 1,500 sq meters of land was allotted for the school. We have the original copy of the patta with us. A group of miscreants set up shops and houses and is not ready to leave the place. We requested and pleaded with them. We even went to the court and won the case. They did not vacate the place.” 
 
In 2005, the deaf persons moved the high court seeking a direction against the encroachment. Ruling in their favour the court directed the disabled welfare officer to act immediately and remove the encroachments. As officials took no action, the deaf persons were forced to approach the court in 2013 again. 
 
High court judge justice N.Kirubakaran who heard the case in January 2013, pointed out, “The special commissioner for disabled causally dealt with the matter and dropped the proceedings directing petitioners to approach revenue department officials to take possession of the land.” He added that when the petitioners did not get any results, they again approached the court for justice. 
 
He directed the Tiru­vallur collector to take action against encroachers and reclaim land to the deaf persons within four months. When contacted, Tiruvallur collector Veera Raghava Rao promised that he would take action.