Chennai: Where are the 14 grounds of prime land earmarked as playground for the Ambedkar law college located inside Madras high court, asked an RTI petition leaving the state and Madras high court officials baffled.
State information commission has now directed the registrar of Madras high court to furnish the details regarding the playground on HC premises.
According to law college sources, additional chambers for advocates, library and metro constructions have taken over the sprawling ground of the erstwhile Madras Law College.
The petitioner has raised eight queries relating to a playground. He has approached the principal of Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai and tashildar Fort, Tondiarpet, and the director of legal studies through RTI, the state information commission said in its order on Monday.
According to the topographical survey maps of the high court as produced by PWD, high court subdivision there is an area of 37,383.57 square feet marked as playground, but the ground is not available for students, the information commission observed.
According to the revenue department the land is recorded as playground (tennis court) and the extent is 13 grounds and 850 square feet. The principal of Dr Ambedkar government law college has addressed the registrar administration of Madras High Court stating that the playground was learnt to be under the control of the high court and therefore documents relating to it may be furnished in order to answer queries raised under RTI act. In his reply the public information officer on on July 27, 2017 stated that there were no answers for certain queries as relevant papers not available in the registry.
Under these circumstances, the public information officer is requested to send a reply on or before November 11, 2017, to the petitioner. Since the information has not be given within 30 days copies may be furnished free of cost.
According to RTI petitioner R. Natarajan, the prime land is not missing but it has been converted into several buildings depriving the students without a playground. “There is no answer for who gave the permission to construct new buildings on the playground and necessary plans mandatory for constructing new buildings are also missing”.
According to a confidential official both the ruling AIADMK and the DMK along with the judiciary wanted to move the law college out of the court campus and the college ground, its parking space and the canteen area were slowly taken up for other commercial and administrative purposes.
