Chennai: Two months after Madras high court ordered blanket ban on registration of unapproved layouts/plots, an advocate has approached the high court, seeking similar order for Puducherry.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan before whom the Public Interest Litigation filed by Elephant G. Rajendran came up for hearing, ordered notice to the Puducherry government.
Senior counsel appearing for Puducherry government said that in view of the court’s observations in matters pertaining to Tamil Nadu and The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, legislation was already underway to deal with issues raised in the petition.
According to petitioner, the situation in Puducherry in respect of agriculture was going bad to worse. Agricultural land was intended only for the purpose of producing food grains and vegetables. If food production goes down, imports would have to be resorted to.
People involved in real estate business converts agricultural lands into plots and the builders were constructing buildings on the agricultural lands and also on coastal regulatory zones.
The conversion of agricultural land into lay outs was happening in a rapid manner. If it was allowed to continue, within three years agricultural land will be reduced to 20 per cent.
This would lead to considerable reduction in the production of paddy and vegetables. Unless, it was controlled right now, the people would have to wait for the arrival of rice and other food products from other places, the petitioner said.
He also sought to restrain authorities from granting any layout approval on agricultural land and granting permission to construct buildings. He also sought to restrain authorities from registering any document or sale deed relating to the unapproved properties.
