Properties worth over ₹590 crore belonging to the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) across the State have been encroached upon by its own party members as well as those from other parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Janata Dal (United) and the Tamil Maanila Congress.
A committee, which has inspected and identified such encroachments, is set to initiate civil and criminal proceedings against the encroachers, many of whom are from the Congress itself, sources said. The Tamil Nadu Congress Property Restoration Committee was constituted in March last year, with senior advocate R. Gandhi as its chairman and former MLA K. Selvaperunthagai as its convenor, besides 15 other members.
No supervision
“These lands, at over 100 places across the State, were donated by freedom fighters, philanthropists and Congress leaders to the party at various points in time.
“However, in many instances, the owners of the properties themselves have been enjoying them [the properties], since there is no effective supervision mechanism in place. Some of them have sub-let the properties to third parties, though the original lessees were paying a meagre amount. The worst part is that they [the third parties] do not pay the meagre amount of rent too. We have to fight it to recover the properties. We have just begun and it is [a] Herculean task,” Mr. Gandhi told The Hindu.
As many as 87 places across the State have been identified as encroached upon by party members or under litigation. “For instance, the BJP has occupied 11 cents of our property near Rose Garden, and runs its party office from our premises. The Janata Dal (United) has occupied our property, measuring six cents, located opposite Race Course, and another 12 cents of land with building and shops in Coonoor in the Nilgris. With the connivance of our partymen who managed the properties, people from other parties encroached on our properties and have been enjoying them for more than a decade. We have instituted litigation against the illegal occupation.”
In 1956, philanthropist Subramania Chettiar donated his land, measuring 19 cents, located near the Ambur Railway station, to then Chief Minister K. Kamaraj.
Following a tussle between the cadre of the Congress and the TMC over the management of the properties, the Revenue Divisional Officer has been ordered to inquire into the dispute. Likewise, some cadre have encroached 10 cents of land, donated to the party by former MLA Gomathi Sankara Dheekshidar, in Ambasamudram in Tirunelveli district.
Property in Tiruchi sold
The committee members said some properties belonging to the party in Tiruchi district have also been sold to third parties.
“A former president of the TNCC is still holding a large portion of properties in his custody and enjoying it,” they said.
As the office-bearers had failed to manage the properties properly, they have either been illegally occupied or are in a neglected state in districts including Tiruvannamalai, Vellore, Cuddalore, Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Coimbatore and Erode, the committee said in its assessment.
Refusing to divulge information on the list of persons holding properties in their names at Kamaraj Bhavan, a shopping complex adjacent to the Kamarajar Memorial hall in Chennai, a committee member said a former Union Minister, a former MP and former MLAs were occupying a few of the 120 shops located inside the complex.
“They refuse to vacate the premises. Moreover, some of them are paying a meagre amount as rent/lease, but they sub-let the shops to other parties at a huge sum,” the member added.
