CMDA loses NOC file given for land acquired

Chennai: Trouble is brewing for Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) after the body lost a file pertaining to a no-objection certificate (NOC) resulting in the transfer of some land acquired for the Maramalai Nagar satellite township project.

The file, which has been lost, was an NOC, written in August 2004 by member secretary, CMDA, in 2004 to an individual who purchased the land in Thirukatchur village in Chengalpet taluk in Kanchipuram district.

The issue popped up when S. Sathyanarayanan filed a case in May 2016 questioning the CMDA over its issuing a patta to his neighbor Rajendran, while declining the same for Sathyanarayanan’s land.

According to sources in the Kanchipuram collector office, “the file appears to have been lost by CMDA.” In its order on July 26, 2016, the Madras high court ordered a report to be submitted by December 31. The report should cite the action being taken against the member secretary of CMDA for granting an NOC in 2004 for land, the exclusion of which from land acquisition was cancelled by the government in 1998.

HC also ordered the Kancheepuram collector office to inquire into the letter issued by special tahsildar (land acquisition), Maraimalai Nagar Scheme, to take appropriate action before December 31.

Sources at the collector office added that after over five months since the judgment, CMDA has woken up and is searching for the file. Despite making multiple attempts to reach him, member secretary Vijayaraj Kumar did not comment.

By an order in 1979, over 92 acres of land was set to be acquired by the government for the development of the Maraimalai Nagar satellite township project. In 1987, through an order, acquisition of 25.92 acres of land was excluded but in another order passed in April 1998, the exclusion of this land from the acquisition was canceled.

This is not the lone case, sources informed. About 10 acres of government land has been transferred to a private developer without the knowledge of officials in Potheri village in Chengalpattu taluk of Kancheepuram district.

State housing secretary Dharmendra Pratap Yadav had then written a letter to CMDA member secretary on how the land acquired by CMDA for the formation for Marimalai Nagar Neighbourhood

Housing Scheme was acquired by a private developer for their construction.
 Interestingly, the nearly 40-year-old Marimalai satellite project has been plagued by issues related to the availability of approved layout for the project which has resulted in allottees raising concerns, as sans the approved layout they are not legible for pattas.