CHENNAI: Dismissing former Nadigar Sangam president Sarath Kumar’s claim that he had got the organisation’s land lease deal with SPI Cinemas cancelled, the present office-bearers of the Sangam, led by its president Nasser and secretary Vishal, on Saturday clarified that it was only now that they had reached the final stage of negotiations with regard to cancelling the deal.
At a press conference here on Saturday, Vishal said, “The talks to cancel the deal with SPI cinemas is in the final stage of negotiation. We have to pay them money. We expected a discount and they waived off the interest but even then, it is a substantial amount. It comes to around `2.48 crore. We don’t have the money to pay them off. So, we are looking to work a way out.”
Speaking at the meet, treasurer Karthi said, “Sarath sir had claimed that they had handed over all the accounts to us. However, I have to inform you that they are yet to hand over the accounts of the trust for the last two years (that is) for the years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 to us. It is true that they have handed over the accounts of the association to us. But we haven’t got the accounts for the time period April-October, this year.”
Stating that they had been sending intimation letters to actor Sarath Kumar time and again regarding this issue, Vishal said, “We will be sending another round of correspondence but it is up to Sarath sir to take serious action. He has to provide us the trust account for two years. Auditing of the association accounts is going on.”
In response to a question on Sarath Kumar’s wife and actress Radhika’s comment on the Nadigar Sangam in an interview she had given in connection with the Beep song controversy, Vishal said, “We are going to serve a showcause notice to actress Radhika over her comments on the Nadigar Sangam. It is wrong to say that we have been silent on this issue when we have been in touch with Simbu and his family and have been looking to help them.”
To another question on the flood relief contributions to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund through the Nadigar Sangam, Vishal clarified that they had collected `1.03 crore and that they would shortly hand over the sum to the Chief Minister’s office.
He pointed out that apart from these funds, a huge amount of relief materials too had been distributed by the members of the Nadigar Sangam and that relief activities were still on.