CHENNAI: The four-decade-long wait of the families who were allotted housing plots under the state-implemented, World Bank-financed Madras Urban Development Project (MUDP) and Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project (TNUDP) has ended as the government has started issuing sale deeds to the beneficiaries.
Speaking to TNIE, P Ramana Saraswathi, MD of the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB), said 700 to 800 applications had remained pending for the past four years without any enquiries or action being taken.
“As of the end of September, 192 allottees had been given dates and times for the enquiries. We have set a target of enquiring at least five to six applications a week, so that the eligible allottees could be issued sale deeds,” she said, adding, “Sale deeds have now been issued to some of the allottees.”
The move follows TNIE’s detailed report, ‘Four decades on, TN housing scheme beneficiaries await promised sale deed’, published on August 24. The report highlighted how beneficiaries of the MUDP and TNUDP schemes, including those in project areas such as Shastri Nagar and Kandapillai Street in Perambur, had been struggling for more than four decades to obtain the promised sale deeds. It also noted how even the allottees who completed their hire-purchase payments were made to wait for the document.
One such allottee, E Manimegalai (65) from Shastri Nagar, received the sale deed in mid-September. Her son, E Kannan, said, “The moment came unexpectedly when my mom received a call from the TNUHDB head office, asking her to collect the sale deed.”
The family cleared the `28,000 outstanding dues last year as part of the MUDP hire-purchase arrangement. However, with the payment completed, she had continued to wait for the sale deed despite repeated visits to the department’s office.
Two other families from Shastri Nagar have received the sale deed between September 15 and 25.
Welcoming the TNUHDB’s move to issue sale deeds, IRCDUC founder Vanessa Peter said the government must ensure that all eligible beneficiaries are covered. “The government must also introduce a mechanism to regularise the purchasers,” she added.
