CM urged to act against irregularities in granting permission to Azhagiri's college

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

An RTI activist has urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to look into the alleged irregularities by Town and Country Planning department in according permission to DMK strongman and former Union Chemicals and Fertilizer Minister M K Azhagiri’s trust to build an engineering college in Madurai.

In a letter to the chief minister, RTI activist and farmer Ramalingam said that as per the RTI information available the local planning authority gave technical sanction to Dhaya Engineering college on December, 24, 2008 as per resolution number 60 passed by the village panchayat. However, after perusing the records it was found that resolution 60 pertains to consent given to construction of a roof to give protection to village funeral vehicle.

Interestingly, the resolution to give consent was only brought under resolution number 74 of the village panchayat.

As per the RTI, a copy of which is available with Express, the field survey of the land was conducted by Thillai Sethupathy, assistant director of town and country planning nearly five months before the application seeking  technical consent was sought. “What is the need to do a field survey for giving consent to the college on March 23, 2008 when the application was put up only on December 18, 2008,” reasoned Ramalingam.

What sounds more fishy is that the report of the survey done on March 23, 2008 was shown as being submitted on February 23, 2008.

In the letter, Ramalingam says that a wrong map was prepared to get approval from the town and country planning authorities.

As per the map to obtain plan approval, survey number 173 was replaced as survey number 174. Interestingly, survey number 173 is a burial ground and a temple land which belongs to the government, according to the RTI.

Quoting RTI information available with him, he says that the sluices of Karisal kanmoi was modernized at a cost of Rs 20.70 lakh in the year 1992 from a grant received from a foreign country. He alleges that the sluices were demolished and the stones were used to build the compound wall.

He also alleged that Public Works Department made estimate for five sluices but were unable to complete the work as engineering college is situated on the irrigation land of the fourth sluice.

Urging the chief minister to take action against the malpractices besides damaging government property, he said that he has enough documents to prove the irregularities.