The people of Anjur First Grade Village Panchayat in Chengalpattu district are struggling to retrieve the open space reservation (OSR) land, which has been unauthorisedly converted into a public road to create access for developing a private commercial property.
The OSR land measuring more than 4 acres out of 7 acres of the land located inside the Mahindra World City near Marai Malai Nagar has been encroached by paving a road, the locals charge.
D. Jayakumar, former president of the Anjur Panchayat, said the OSR land in question, along with 74 acres of land, was donated by the Mahindra World City, for which a gift deed was registered in the Chengalpattu sub-registrar office on November 14, 2011. Mr. Jayakumar said a portion of four acres of the 74 acres of OSR land had been unauthorisedly used for paving a 60-feet road to help a private property developer and a private school get access. He said the value of the OSR land in question was nearly ₹20 crore.
The villagers are aggrieved at not only the OSR land being encroached into a road but also the road was being paved from the panchayat fund of ₹22 lakh for the exclusive purpose of the private property developer and the private school.
Showing the 60-feet road linked with the 100-feet main road of the Mahindra World City, S. Murugan, a resident of Anjur old village, said the eight villages coming under the Anjur First Grade Panchayat had put up with bad roads due to shortage of funds but the panchayat officials had allocated money for paving a new road for private developer, that too occupying the OSR land.
In addition to paving the road, Mr. Jayakumar said a community hall had also been constructed. “During interaction with Revenue officials for retrieving the land, we were told that the land designated for OSR purpose, for which gift deed has been registered, has not been updated in the revenue records by cancelling the pattas,” he said.
A senior official of the Chengalpattu district administration said Collector A.R. Rahul Nadh had ordered a detailed inquiry into the reclassification of the OSR, which could not be done. A report would be submitted to the Collector shortly based on which steps would be taken to retrieve the OSR land, he added.
