After Housing Scam,DMK Govt Goes For Damage Control

TN scraps discretionary quota

After Housing Scam,DMK Govt Goes For Damage Control

8/1/2011

Jayaraj Sivan TNN

Chennai: In a damage-control move following reports of irregularities in the allocation of Tamil Nadu Housing Board plots,houses and apartments under the government discretionary quota (GDQ),the state government on Friday scrapped the system with immediate effect.Announcing this in the assembly during his address to the House,governor Surjit Singh Barnala said the GDQ system,which was in vogue for several years,is being put to an end from today.
A month ago,TOI had carried a series of reports on the state governments largesse to many judges,politicians,bureaucrats and police officials.They were brought to light by a Chennai-based RTI activist V Gopalakrishnan,who filed a series of applications with TNHB over the last two years seeking information on allocation under the GDQ.The replies revealed several people close to the corridors of power,though not eligible to receive such allotments,were rewarded with housing plots and flats by the government in prime locations like Thiruvanmiyur,Sholinganallur and Mogappair.
Many of them already owned properties in prime locations in various cities at the time of allocation and were thus ineligible to get such benefits from the housing board,whose charter is to provide affordable housing to the less privileged and the homeless.The allottees are required to give a declaration that they did not own any housing plot or apartment in urban centres.The allotments by the board helped many influential people to get properties at rates far cheaper (in most cases 40% to 60% lower) than the market price.