After students’ stir, new houses by June 20

After a kidney racket, it is now an agitation by school children, aged six years to 16 years, that is creating unrest in Tsunami Nagar in North Chennai.

After a kidney racket, it is now an agitation by school children, aged six years to 16 years, that is creating unrest in Tsunami Nagar in North Chennai.

When schools reopened on June 4, nearly 500 children of Tsunami Nagar decided to keep away until authorities allowed them to go to the houses constructed for them nearly three years after the disaster. But when authorities failed to take notice of their school boycott, about 150 children, including some residents, lined up on Tsunami Nagar streets for an agitation.

Today, the Chennai Deputy Collector rushed to Tsunami Nagar to assure residents that 1,392 new houses would be ready for them by June 20. The remaining 1,000 residents would have to wait for another year. The children promised to go back to schools from Monday after the assurance.

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The residents of Tsunami Nagar, mostly fisherfolk, have been facing hardships as their temporary shelters are located about two km away from the sea. The place comprises temporary shelters housing about 1,600 families affected by the December 2004 tsunami.

In January this year, it came to light that at least 30 women in the colony sold their kidneys to overcome financial problems post-tsunami. “The location of the shelters was one of the reasons for the residents resorting to selling their kidneys to make ends meet,” said Maria Selvam, leader of the Fishermen’s Association.

Embarrassed by the kidney expose, the state Government, besides launching a Crime Branch-CID inquiry into the kidney racket, tightened the loopholes into the cadaver transplant programme and also promised Tsunami Nagar residents that their new houses, located closer to the sea, would be ready for them to move in by April.

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