Chennai: Officials of the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) who went to the SRM Hotel in Trichy on Saturday to reclaim the 4.70 acres of land that had been leased to the SRM group for 30 years as the lease period had expired on Thursday had to return empty handed with political cadre belonging to the BJP and IJK preventing them from entering the premises and threatening to hold a protest.
Later, the hotel management obtained a stay on the land recovery process till June 18 from the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, which left the TTDC officials, who were assisted by Revenue department officials and the state police, with no option but to leave the premises.
While BJP State president K Annamalai and PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss described the government bid to recover the land as political vendetta, attributing it to the SRM Group chairman, T R Pachamuthu, contesting the Lok Sabha elections against DMK candidate, Arun Nehru, from the Trichy constituency, the government came out with a clarification and accused the SRM Group of failing to clear the Rs 38,85,65,837 (nearly 39 crore) arrears on rent.
The property in Kottapattu village in Trichy district, which belongs to TTDC, was given on lease 30 years ago, on June 14, 1994, for constructing the hotel and an agreement was drawn with clear clauses specifying that the lessee should not demand extension of the lease period beyond June 13, 2024, an official press release said.
It said that the hotel management was given due notice for clearing the arrears and also informed in advance, on May 2, about the lease period coming to an end on June 13. Yet the management refused to vacate the premises though the lease agreement clearly stated that the land along with the buildings should be handed over to TTDC as such.
The SRM group had only paid a rent of Rs 9,08,20,104 (over nine crore) for the 30 years of occupation in the property though the total rent worked out to Rs 49,93,85,941 (about 50 crore), the government said.
It is learnt that the property was handed to the SRM Group in 1994 for constructing the hotel that was needed to accommodate the participants of the Eighth International Tamil Research Conference that was held in 1995 at Thanjavur. Since Thanjavur is just over an hour’s drive from Trichy, where the airport is also located, many people were put up there.
However, the agreement was drawn with very clear clauses specifying 30 years as the lease period and making it compulsory for the management to return the land along with the buildings on it in 2024.
