Bosco Dominique, TNN, Feb 23, 2011,
PUDUCHERRY: A housing scam has surfaced in the Congress-ruled UT of Puducherry, with information obtained under the RTI Act revealing that rules were changed and discretionary powers invoked to allot prime plots to politicians and bureaucrats.
Fifty people, including the present CM, three former CMs, a host of present and former ministers, legislators and three bureaucrats, managed to buy plots in a prime area from the government at throwaway prices, information obtained by RTI activist P Ragupathy of the Rajiv Gandhi Human Rights Awareness Organization shows.
Replying to Ragupathy's RTI application filed last December, public information officer and senior town planner, town and country planning department, M Kandar Selvam furnished the list of politicians and officers who purchased plots in the housing layout at Jawahar Nagar, Boomianpet, between 1999 and 2008. The list includes CM V Vaithilingam, all his cabinet colleagues, speaker R Radhakrishnan and former CMs N Rangasamy (who quit the Congress recently), RV Janakiraman (DMK) and MDR Ramachandran (DMK). In 1999, the Janakiraman-led government gave plots to 31 elected members, the Rangasamy-led Congress government allotted plots to 14 in 2004 and one each in 2005 and 2008, the reply says.
The beneficiaries purchased about 2,400-sq ft plot each for prices ranging between Rs 41,000 and Rs 47,000.
Vaithilingam bought a 3,500-sq ft plot for Rs 71,330 in 2005. Nine of the allottees, who bought plots for less than Rs 47,000 each, sold them at a price ranging between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 12.5 lakh within a few years, the reply reveals.
Denying any irregularities in the allotment of plots, Kandar Selvam said the government passed an order relaxing the provisions of Rule 7 (b) of the Land Acquisition and Development Scheme Rules, 1969, which says that plots should not be sold to a person who already owns a house or a developed plot. "In addition to the relaxation, the government invoked its discretionary powers to earmark a limited portion of the layout for sale to persons who are not covered by any other scheme as stipulated in the guidelines issued by the ministry of works, housing and supply, government of India," Selvam said.
Reacting to the allegation, Vaithilingam said the plots were not allocated during his tenure. "The previous government devised a scheme to provide plots to MLAs. I declined when the government offered me a plot in 1999 as I was leader of opposition then. I was again included in the beneficiaries' list in 2005 when I was just an MLA without holding any other post," he said.
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