CHENNAI: Over the past few decades, land grabbing has reduced the area of several lakes and tanks in and around Chennai. In one such case, the Tambaram Revenue Divisional Officer recently cancelled pattas after realising land that was part of a lake had been allotted to two people nearly 30 years ago.
In 1991 and 1997, Villupuram’s then land reforms assistant commissioner gave two land parcels of 93 cents and 100 cents to two persons respectively in Agaramthen, near Tambaram, for agriculture. The man who got 93 cents built a posh bungalow with a swimming pool, while the other piece of land remains vacant. With the pattas cancelled, both landowners are set to lose their properties, which are worth several crore rupees.
The issue came to light when the owner of one of the properties had a boundary dispute. As revenue officials scrutinised land records to resolve the dispute, they realised one of the pieces of land was assigned by the government in 1997, and belonged to the Periya Eri Lake in Agaramthen.
A probe revealed that another piece of land was allotted in 1991 to another person. Following this, the revenue officials issued notices to the land owners seeking explanations, after which the pattas for both land parcels were cancelled.
‘Allotment illegal, an 85-yr-old could not be given the property’
In May 1997, about 93 cents of land in Agaramthen were assigned to an 85-year-old ex-servicemen for agricultural activities under the Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Disposal of Surplus lands) Rules, 1965. The assignee transferred the land to his son in 2007 and died the next year. R evenue officials said allotment of the land itself was illegal as an 85-year-old can’t be given land for agriculture since he would get full power over the property only after 20 years.
“The assistant commissioner (land reforms) who assigned the land in 1997 said 93 cents were of surplus land recovered under the TN Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Act, 1961. But the ceiling act did not notify the assigned land parcels as surplus land in Agaramthen village,” said D Ravichandran, Revenue Divisional Officer, Tambaram in his order.
The revision survey of the Resettlement Register of Agaramthen revealed that over 276.1 acres of land comprising the two land parcels are classified as Periya Eri Tank. As per the Updating Registry (UDR) Scheme ‘A’, a master book for land records, the lake land had been subdivided and such divided land parcels assigned to two persons in 1991 and in 1997, added D Ravichandran. The Tambaram tahsildar had been directed to change the revenue records accordingly, and initiate steps to recover the land, said officials.