VELLORE: Thirty-three years have passed by since 120 Dalit families made Ambedkar Nagar at Chinna Allapuram in the district their home after the then Adi Dravidar welfare (ADW) Department assigned them housing site pattas, but they continue to lead a life of uncertainty as they complain that the land records are yet to be updated in their names. Blaming official apathy, after a court ruling over the land’s ownership, for the situation, the residents urge the government to honour its allotment and provide them with e-pattas.
It was in 1993 when 120 families from the Arunthathiyar community, who were residing on Mariamman Temple Street in Kaspa, were assigned pattas by the ADW department–now renamed as Social Justice Department–for 120 sq m each in the land parcel at what was then Allapuram. Chinna Allapuram’s Ambedkar Nagar is behind the Circuit House.
Even as the revenue department was yet to follow up on the ADW department’s allotment like subdividing it and issuing pattas to the 120 beneficiaries, one of the original landowners moved court against the land assignment in 1994. In 1995, the district court issued an ex parte judgment in favour of the petitioner after the defendants—the special tahsildar and the district collector—neither appeared for hearing nor filed written statements. The court had granted a permanent injunction against the defendants, sources said.
Meanwhile, finding the land records not reflecting their names, the beneficiaries of the ADW allotment at Ambedkar Nagar have been knocking on government officials’ doors to update the documents.
During one such effort by the ADW allotment beneficiaries, the then special tahsildar issued a statement on February 2, 2024, stating that a case against the patta assignment is pending and that any revision could be done only after the court’s “final judgment”.
“All the officials we meet ask us to file an appeal for the patta record update. We don’t have the resources for that. In fact it is the government’s job, not ours,” said Venkatesan M, a beneficiary and a daily wage worker.
When contacted, a social justice department officer told TNIE that the special tahsildar has been instructed to review all files pertaining to Ambedkar Nagar. “Next week we will visit the area and check the possibility of issuing an e-patta (to the 120 beneficiaries),” the official said. A revenue official also promised to look into the matter.