The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Residents hopeful of solution to land issue

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Thursday, May 22, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Residents hopeful of solution to land issue

Special Correspondent

COIMBATORE: Residents of 93 layouts in the city are hopeful of their house sites getting regularised after an exemption from the Urban Land Ceiling Act.

The optimism stems from the meeting their representatives had with Revenue Minister I. Periyasamy here on Wednesday.

President of the Government Surplus Land Areas Affected Residents’ Welfare Association R. Mohan said the Minister had told him that a decision might be taken in Chennai on Thursday.

At the same time, the house owners would have to pay a fee to get exemption from the Act.

Mr. Mohan said the association had already told the Government and the district administration that the residents would not be able to pay Rs.66,000 a ground (5.5 cents) for the exemption.

“We will not be able to pay such a huge amount, because we have already paid heavily to purchase the land and to build the house. We have asked for a reasonable amount. The Minister has indicated that this is among the issues on which a decision will be taken,” Mr. Mohan said after meeting the Minister here.

Totally, 253 acres in 93 layouts had been categorised as Government surplus land. About 3,000 houses had been constructed on these lands. The problem came to light when the residents applied to the Coimbatore Corporation for the regularisation of their house sites.

While the sites in more than 560 unapproved layouts got regularised, the process was put on hold for the sites on these 93 layouts. The residents had bought the lands between 1978 and 1985 and claimed that they had been tricked into buying the lands without knowing anything about the Act that had been passed in 1976.

In a memorandum submitted to the Minister, the association wondered why the residents had to suffer because of an Act that was actually abolished in 1999.

It said the residents had lived in these layouts for more than 25 years and it would be impossible for them to give up the property they had bought with hard-earned money.

The people had once worked for textile mills that were closed now.

They were actually struggling to earn a living when it was announced that their sites were Government surplus lands.

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