Date:18/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/18/stories/2006081825090300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Do not let down residents: councillors

Special Correspondent

VERBAL DUEL: DMK and AIADMK councillors clash over the layout regularisation scheme at the Coimbatore Corporation Council meeting on Thursday. — PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

COIMBATORE: Councillors of all parties urged the Coimbatore Corporation on Thursday to take immediate measures for the regularisation of sites in Singanallur that was held up on the grounds that these being Government lands.

At the Corporation Council's Urgent Meeting, the councillors urged the civic body not to let down the residents of over 40 layouts who had been waiting for decades for regularisation. They wanted the Corporation to appeal to the Government for exempting the layouts from the Urban Land Ceiling Act and including them in the ongoing regularisation process.

The issue was raised in the Council following the rejection of applications for regularisation from these layouts.

The Leader of the Opposition and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), K.P. Jagannathan, said the Corporation must make an appeal to the Government as only it could intervene and provide an exemption.The rest of the Council pointed out to the Deputy Mayor, K. Raghupathy, and the Commissioner, P. Muthuveeran, that the residents in these sites had spent hard earned money on buying small pieces of land (of five cents) and took loans to build houses. Now, they feared eviction from these layouts and demolition of the houses.

Government property

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam (AIADMK) councillor Singai S. Balan wondered how the sites got registered when these lands were supposed to have been Government property.Communist Party of India (Marxist) member C. Padmanabhan said that when the sites were registered and even amenities provided as per the development charges paid to the Corporation, the focus now must be on only obtaining an exemption from the act and regularising them. "These people should not be let down."

Communist Party of India's R. Devaraj said the issue had turned very serious 30 years after the act was passed (in 1976). Despite the Centre passing an order in 1999, providing an option to State Governments to decide on the fate of such layouts, successive Governments in the State had done nothing to solve the issue. An appeal should be made now to the Chief Minister and the Minister for Local Administration to get the exemption.

The Commissioner announced that applications for regularisation would be received from the residents of these layouts and an official of the Corporation would be deputed to explain the situation to the Commissioner of Land Administration.

Members clash

AIADMK and DMK councillors clashed over Mr. Balan's remark over the regularisation scheme, disrupting the meeting for about 20 minutes. When Mr. Jagannathan praised the State Government for the scheme, Mr. Balan said the AIADMK Government had already introduced whatever Mr. Jagannathan was listing out as benefits of the scheme.

This set off a clash between the councillors of both parties. Both sides waved angrily at each other with the DMK members raising slogans against the rival camp.