Nasser team to set up inquiry panel

 

Speaking to DC, Pandavar Ani’s candidate for president, actor Nasser, actor Vishal, running for general secretaryship, currently held by actor Radha Ravi, director Ponvannan, who will contest one of the two vice-president posts, and actor Poochi Murugan, said they will not hesitate to probe the alleged “fraud and corruption” by their poll opponents and take necessary action.

 

“There are provisions in the Sangam rules which allow the office-bearers to appoint a committee headed by a retired high court judge to inquire into cases of financial fraud,” said Nasser.

 

“Several hundred crores of  rupees worth property was leased out to a private party without even an executive committee or a general body  meeting to seek members’ consent,” said Nasser. 

 

The root cause of the polls is the 18-ground land belonging to the Nadigar Sangam on Habibullah Road, T.Nagar here, where its office was situated and whose estimated worth is around Rs 200 crore. The allegation against Sarath Kumar and Radha Ravi is that they leased out the land to SPI cinemas for 30 years on their own. Poochi S. Murugan, a sangam member and a DMK functionary, objected to this and took up the matter before the Madras high court.

 

“After leasing the property, they went and bought a piece of land spending Rs 1.60 crore to set up the sangam’s temporary office. Again, who permitted them to do this” asked Ponvannan.

 

Vishal said  days after the lease agreement was entered into and a token sum  exchanged between SPI and Sarath Kumar, the latter called for an executive committee to ratify the lease agreement. “There is clear money swindling in this deal and if voted to power, we will investigate the deal,” said Vishal.

 

Nasser said the Sarath Kumar’s team had not bothered about the welfare of the theatre artists all this while. “The welfare of drama and theatre actors was completely neglected. In their reign, any one who questioned their moves were simply expelled from the association. This has to change and young blood should be infused into the sangam administration,” Nasser said.

 

The drama surrounding the sangam elections is reaching a feverish pitch. The elections are scheduled for October 18 (Sunday). At Alwarpet, Pandavar Ani members have converted the office of actor Suriya as their election campaign office. The young actors are all busy seeking support from the 3139 card holding members. The association has members also in other states such as Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra.