New land, old plot: RTI reveals a TN ‘scam’

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New land, old plot: RTI reveals a TN ‘scam’
Gopu Mohan
Posted: Dec 08, 2010 at 0259 hrs IST


Chennai It took a while, but the lid seems to be finally off an alleged land scam in Tamil Nadu that is potentially as damaging for the state government as similar cases recently surfacing elsewhere in the country.
It has emerged from documents obtained by an RTI activist, V Gopalakrishnan, that the DMK government allotted land worth crores to a long list of people — politicians, their family members, senior officials and even senior judicial staff — by allegedly misusing its discretionary powers.

At the heart of the alleged scam is a special power given to the authorities to award 15 per cent of the properties developed by the state agency, the Tamil Nadu Housing Board, under what is called the Government’s Discretionary Quota (GDQ). This is done based on the recommendations by the Chief Minister.

Though such powers could be justified on the face of it, the list of beneficiaries, with the names of influential persons, proves otherwise.

The norms on eligibility of applicants clearly states the categories of person who could be accommodated in the GDQ list. They include widows, deserted or single women, social workers, disabled persons, former armed forces personnels, eminent personalities, freedom fighters, government servants having ‘unblemished’ service records, journalists, among others.

But the list of beneficiaries reveals that several of those who got land were influential DMK politicians, officials who have faced corruption charges and former and serving judges of the Madras High Court. Two personal security officers of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and two children of the CM’s secretaries are also among the beneficiaries.

In the case of politicians and the relatives of influential persons in the list, it is the ‘social worker’ category that has allegedly been twisted to suit the need. Many received ‘certificates’ from local government officials, some even presented citations from largely social groups like Lions Club and Rotary Club to meet the eligibility.

More ridiculous is perhaps the self-attestations given by some of the officials certifying that their career was “unblemished”, like in the case of G Prakash, an IAS official who was the collector of Tirunelveli district at the time of allotment.

Most officials including Sumathi Ravichandran, a relative of senior DMK leader and Finance Minister K Anbazhagan and a former Regional Passport Officer who was arrested on bribe charges, did not present the ‘Unblemished Government Servant’ certificate from their parent department as is mandatory. Only those with 25 years service without any punishment or adverse remark is eligible for a certificate. In Sumathi’s defence, the case did not even reach the chargesheet stage and she rejoined service though not as the RPO.

When asked about the impropriety and abuse of power in the allotment of housing board plots, State Revenue Minister I Periyasamy told reporters on Tuesday that the land was allotted as per the norms of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board.

Agriculture Minister S Arumugam, whose kin were among the beneficiaries, stated ignorance as to how exactly his family members got the properties, but maintained that there were no violations committed. The board gave allotment from among the eligible applicants, the senior DMK leader said.