Officials puzzled over transfer of govt land to private developer

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

In a shocking case of callousness that exposes the lack of coordination between various government deparments, a 10-acre piece of government land in Chengalpattu has gone to a private real estate developer, apparently without the knowledge of concerned officials.

This has prompted the State Housing Secretary Dharmendra Pratap Yadav to shoot off a letter to the member secretary of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority asking how the land in Potheri Village in Chengalpattu Taluk of Kancheepuram district that was acquired by the CMDA for Marimalai Nagar Neighbourhood Housing Scheme was acquired by Lancor Holdings.

The official has asked the member secretary to examine how planning permission was accorded to the private developer on the land belonging to CMDA, which has not yet been reconveyed to the original land owners.

The agency has maintained that it has not given any planning permission to construct buildings, pointing out that Potheri village does not come under Chennai Metropolitan Area over which it has jurisdiction. Other areas come under the Directorate of Town and Country Planning. However, when Express contacted, DTCP officials said they will have to check on who gave the planning permission. “We have not given planning permission to construct any structure in the last one year,” an official said.

It is not just the CMDA and the directorate who seem to have erred. Top officials are puzzled as to how the revenue department could could issue patta in the name of a private developer when the land acquired decades ago is yet to be reconveyed to the original owners.

It is said that the private developer had purchased the land in 2012 at a cost of Rs 40 crore.

Shocking as this is, it is not the lone case where the government land has changed hands without the knowledge of the concerned deparment. Insiders allege that there are several such cases, putting the blame on estate managers – a post specifically created to monitor the land acquired for projects. These officers have failed to alert CMDA about the encroachments or about any development taking place in the land. “They sit in CMDA headquarters in the city, unaware of any development on the ground level,” said sources.

The CMDA is currently struggling to get back the land to an extent of 178.87 acres, which was acquired to develop satellite town at Marimalai Nagar in 1972 to regulate population growth of city as suggested by the First Master Plan. This figure is based on a survey carried out by CMDA in 2010. Some of the land acquired has also been returned to its former owners by the High Court, as the land has not been put to use.

Sources charged that the current value of the land encroached could be more than Rs 1,000 crore in the current real estate market.

The whole project has been a big headache for the CMDA, even as it has cost the State exchequer a substantial amount of money that has been spent on litigation to get back the land. It is learnt that allotments could not be made to 36 allottees in government approved plots in 2006 as their land have been encroached by ex-owners and encroachers in Marimalai Nagar.

In 2010, CMDA had begun a drive to clear encroachments in its 37 acres of land acquired more than three decades ago in Keelakaranai village in Marimalainagar. But after the encroachments were cleared under heavy security, the land is again being encroached upon due to lack of proper estate management.