Several hundred families in the city which had, a few decades ago, purchased housing plots that were taken over by the government earlier under provisions of the Tamil Nadu Urban Land Ceiling Act, 1978, have urged the State government to speed up the implementation of the provisions of official orders and regularise them.
The residents, who are classified as ‘ariyaamal kirayam petravargal’ (investors who were not aware of ceiling land at the time of sale), said that in the absence of regularisation and subsequently ownership of the property, they were unable to mortgage, re-develop or sell it. They recalled that several families had purchased land in the city and suburbs that were taken over by the government under provisions of the 1978 Act, but were not aware of that at the time of transaction.
“Neither the sellers of the land nor the investors were aware that the land involved was taken over by the government at the time of transaction, as there was no proper documentation at that time. It was only later that we discovered this,” said a civil engineer from Chromepet who is unable to develop or sell his property.
According to him, it was only later that they were informed about the classification of the land. The State government, fortunately, gave a kind hearing to the grievances of the affected families — estimated to be more than 25,000 at present – and passed a Government Order in 1998 to “regularise and ‘re-convey’ the land to the innocent purchasers.”
In 2008, the Revenue Department passed another G.O. (No. 565), which also fixed the rates to be paid by the purchasers of the land to the respective zonal officers for regularisation.
“Six years have passed since this Order was passed. Applications from several hundred families have been pending in the Revenue Department for many years now,” an applicant, who preferred not be named, said.
Sources said a section of the affected applicants even pasted posters in government office complexes recently, alleging harassment by unknown men who tried to exploit their desperation.
Officials said dedicated teams were looking into this issue and that applications of the innocent purchasers were being individually studied and that the government was working towards implementation of their orders on regularisation of land bought by them.
