The Madras High Court has rebuked a panchayat president for filing a petition to put hurdles in the allotment of houses under the ‘Samathuvapuram’ housing scheme in the Sathyamangalam taluk of Erode district.
When the authorities concerned had made the allotments by following the guidelines scrupulously, the panchayat president within whose territorial jurisdiction the process took place had filed the petition “understandably to gain politically at the cost of benefit and welfare of the allottees,” a Division Bench comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M.Venugopal has observed while dismissing the petition.
The petitioner, C.R.Selvaraj, sought a direction to Erode Collector to allot, issue patta and hand over 100 houses constructed by the State government in “Periyar Ninaivu Samathuvapuram” in Vedar Nagar, Chikkarasam Palayam, either to the original allottees of 2011 or make a fresh allotment by strictly following the procedure, including the communal ratio. The petitioner, who was the village president, said he had filed the petition in the interest of the public of the area.
He submitted that 100 houses were constructed for the poor and downtrodden in 2010-11. Fifteen persons were allotted houses in February 2011. Thereafter, neither the keys nor the pattas for the remaining 85 houses were given.
When he knew that the remaining houses were to be allotted without following the procedure, he filed the present petition.
In the counter, the district authorities said houses had been allotted to 89 persons who were found eligible after verification. Eleven persons were found ineligible.
The Bench said the counter showed that the houses were allotted on February 2 this year after verification of the beneficiaries’ eligibility. The panchayat president had filed the petition on February 6 seeking an innocuous prayer stating that he was not aware of the allotments.
