The Greater Chennai Corporation, the Chennai River Restoration Trust, and the Public Works Department had, on Sunday, started the city's one the biggest evictions to annihilate the city's largest slum that rests on the banks of the Cooum river. Over a thousand residents who have been living in the slum for over five decades at Sathyavani Muthu Nagar would now be rehabilitated to Perumbakkam and the evacuation operation has been unleashed in the slums of the Cooum river with the view of restoring the water body.

The sudden and immediate drive of eviction had spurred the anger and the protests from the slum residents including many women and school children who encountered the mechanisms of annihilating their homes overnight and the reports say that the slum at the riverbank of Sathyavani Nagar, Triplicane is the largest one in the city that has more than 2000 families and they have been left homeless after the authorities had flattened their settlements to uphold their project of river restoration. By citing the developments, a senior official from the Public Works Department (PWD) said that the slum has been a home for 2,092 families and the eviction drive comes days after the corporation had evicted about 1,018 families from the city's second-largest slum in Pallavan Nagar which resides behind the headquarters of MTC in Anna Salai.

They have been put in the alternative accommodations. A senior official from the Chennai River Restoration Trust said that the residents of Satyavani Muthu Nagar have been living in the slum for the past five decades and initially they were hired to clean the Cooum river and they have installed their settlements in later years. He stated that the Cooum water body was used for transportation purposes and was even served for drinking and domestic purposes and the river has been allegedly ditched with the garbage and the river banks are being packed with the encroachments that have led the river to get polluted. By claiming that this drive would enable in restoring the water body, the official cited that over 2000 dwellers would be rehabilitated with the alternative accommodations in Perumbakkam that have been built by the Slum Clearance Board.

He revealed that the evacuation process will be concluded in twenty days and the drive would be evicting about 50 families per day to the alternative centers and added that the residents who would be getting shifted to Perumbakkam will be given Rs 5000 as a shifting allowance and for the first three days of shifting, they would be provided with adequate food and water. After having been asked to evict from their homes immediately, the residents have accused and condemned the authorities for demolishing their settlements that would largely affect the livelihood and the education as, they claim, that they have been directed to vacate in the middle of the academic year.

In the middle of the eviction drive, leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi Thol. Thirumavalavan had visited the slum on Sunday evening and strongly condemned the act of evicting the residents in the middle of the academic year. The residents said that the officials from the Slum Clearance Board of Tamil Nadu had come to the spot on Sunday morning along with the 250 police personnel from the Chintadripet Police station and Deputy Commissioner's office in Triplicane and stated that they ordered the residents to pack and leave the slum without issuing any prior notice and added that the eviction affects the students majorly as they ought to travel 40 km every day for the school.