Govt recovers Rs 60 cr worth encroached land in Chennai

In Chennai, the Tiruvallur district administration has recovered about seven acres that had been reclaimed from the Korattur lake by some realtors and a private school. The land is valued at about Rs 60 crore. A team of revenue officials on February 28 went to the lake area and removed the encroachments after measuring the encroached land.

Tiruvallur Collector K Veera Raghava Rao said that a review meeting with officials of the public works department (PWD) and the revenue department was conducted and it was decided to recover the encroached land, especially water bodies, in the district. As a part of the effort, the officers recovered a portion of the encroached land in Korattur lake.

The recovered property will be fenced by revenue officials and the drive against encroachments will continue, said collector Veera Raghava Rao. The revenue officials will submit a report and based on it, further action will be initiated against those who had encroached upon the land.

Sources said that a private school had reclaimed part of the land from the lake and used it as a ground for its children. Likewise, some real estate agents had also encroached upon another portion of the land and sold plots to members of the public for building houses.