Jayalalitha slams CMDA scheme

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JAN. 6. The AIADMK general secretary, Ms. Jayalalitha, today criticised the State Government for using the regularisation scheme of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority to ``harass'' people owning houses or apartments.

In a statement, she said the government introduced the scheme as it was starved of funds for the various sops that the Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, planned to announce over the coming months. The urban house-owners had become a scapegoat in Mr. Karunanidhi's ``desperate bid'' to cling to power in the coming election. ``By October 31, Rs. 47 crores had already flowed into the government's coffers and with the deadline being extended till December 31, unsuspecting, unwary house-owners in Chennai would have added more to the bounty,'' she said.

Also, the scheme helped the DMK which was on a fund collection drive to finance its election efforts. Some DMK leaders, who realised that there was no ``encore'' for them in the coming election, wanted to line their pockets while they could. ``Several building owners, flat promoters and builders have run scurrying to known DMK bigwigs and coughed up huge amounts of money to ward off demolition of their deviated constructions,'' she said.

Ms. Jayalalitha said the people's resistance to the CMDA directive should not be confused with resistance to the regularisation process as the opposition was only to the unnaturally high fee. In many cases, the deviations had been forced upon them thanks to the archaic laws which had not kept pace with changing times and requirements.

The State Government had enacted the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Act in 1998 which was notified after 14 months in July, 2000. The GO issued in this connection gave power to the Commissioner of the Corporation to levy penalty for unauthorised constructions at three times the building permission fee. However, days after the Act and its associated rules came into effect, the State Government suspended its operation by means of an ordinance.

An Act of law, duly passed in the State Legislature and cleared by the President of India, was arbitrarily set aside by the State Government. Subsequently, the Corporation Council passed a resolution handing over the power of regularisation to the CMDA.

``Thereafter, the CMDA, through a notification, started terrorising the public into paying at the rate of Rs.125 to Rs.250 per square foot for regularisation of violations or face demolition proceedings.'' Such a procedure was faulty as transfer of powers from one body to another should only be made through legislation, she said.

Further, the penalty levied was several times the amount laid out in the Act passed by the same government. ``If the building owners were to comply with the new rules, most of them would end up paying to the CMDA more money than they spent on constructing their buildings,'' she added.

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