Nearly seven lakh house site pattas were issued free after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government took over in May 2006, according to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.
Reacting to the reported announcement of the newly-elected State secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) G. Ramakrishnan that a hunger strike would be held in April near the upcoming Assembly-Secretariat complex demanding the issuance of house site pattas to the poor, the Chief Minister, in a statement on Tuesday, gave an account of his government’s decision to relax norms in the issuance of pattas to expedite the process.
Recently, the government issued an order, reducing the duration of dwelling on government poromboke lands from five years to three years. The Kalaignar Housing Scheme, aimed at making the State free of huts, would be launched on March 3. In the initial year, three lakh huts would be covered.
Questioning the need for the proposed agitation, Mr Karunanidhi said that the civilised world would understand well as to which political culture such an agitation would belong, when the government was striving hard for the completion of the Secretariat project.
