By E. Manikandan
Virudhunagar: A farmer has moved his house 12 feet using jockeys near Thiruchuzhi.
Lakshmanan (52) hails from Panaiyur near Thiruchuzhi in Virudhunagar district. farmer His wife Panchavarnam. From 2001 to 2005, he was responsible as the Panchayat President of Pilliyarnattam. He built a house with 2 floors in 2003 on Pilliyarnattam-Kamudi road in Panayur. Since that day, he has paid the house tax, water connection and two electricity connections and received the receipt. This house was also deeded in 2018.
In this case, a notice was given by the panchayat administration that the house built by Lakshmanan has been built encroaching 12 feet. It was also advised to demolish the adobe house. But without demolishing his house, farmer Lakshmanan has moved his 2 storied house by 12 feet with modern technology using jockeys.
Lakshmanan said, “The panchayat administration is taking revenge on me due to old election enmity. A public interest case has been filed against me only for building a house by encroachment. But will the panchayat administration come forward to remove all the houses and buildings built under encroachment? I built a house in 2003 at a cost of Rs.20 lakhs. I don’t want to tear it down. So, I planned to move the house using jockeys by workers from Rajasthan. Accordingly, the work of digging the foundation was done for 25 days. Then the house was moved little by little at the rate of one foot per day for the last 15 days with jockeys. At present it has been moved by 12 feet. It has cost up to Rs.10 lakhs. After this, I am going to do the work of setting up the floor on the ground,” he said.