Puducherry CM's Parliamentary Secretary K Lakshminarayanan stages dharna near Chief Secretariat

The protestors sought reduction of GLR value of a land in Chinnayapuram to provide house sites to poor slum dwellers in his Raj Bhavan constituency.
Puducherry CM's Parliamentary Secretary K Lakshminarayanan protests near Chief Secretariat. (Photo| EPS)
Puducherry CM's Parliamentary Secretary K Lakshminarayanan protests near Chief Secretariat. (Photo| EPS)

PUDUCHERRY: Parliamentary Secretary to Puducherry Chief Minister K Lakshminarayanan, MLAs along with around 200 people on Thursday staged a dharna near the Chief Secretariat, seeking reduction of GLR value of a land in Chinnayapuram to provide house sites to poor slum dwellers in his Raj Bhavan constituency.

Around 220 to 240 poor families are residing in Chinnayapuram on a private land for around 70 years . However the government has not been able to provide them with free house sites as per the scheme implemented by the Revenue department,said Lakshminarayan.

With the government facing financial constraints and scope for providing free patta diminishing , Lakshminarayanan approached the landowners Chinnaya Mudaliar and Deivayani. They agreed to offer their land at a nominal cost of Rs 250 per square feet as a noble gesture.

However the Registration department refused to register the land below the GLR rate of the land which is around Rs 2000 per square feet, said Lakshminarayanan. This will mean that the land owner will have to pay capital gain tax of around Rs 300 per square feet, which was below the rate at which they were offering the land. Hence the land owners backed out.

The matter was taken to Chief Minister V Narayanasamy as the only solution was to reduce the GLR value as a one time measures. At a cabinet meeting chief minister and all ministers had agreed for reduction of  the GLR value, but the Chief Secretary objected citing it would be a favour to an individual by the government and the government will lose revenue.

Lakshminarayanan cited that the government had reduced the GLR rates by 25 percent in 2017 and now for a cause the government should come forward to help poor people to have a land and house of their own, he said.

As they proceeded towards Chief Secretariat today, they were stopped on SV Patel Salaai when they resorted to dharna .After an hour of staging dharma, the dharna was withdrawn following the intervention of Deputy Collector (Revenue - North) T Sudhakar .

The police have registered cases for violation of 144 CrPC and provision of lockdown against the MLA and others .

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