Tamil Nadu Housing Board scam: DMK had scant regard for rules

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It has come to light that the previous DMK government allotted Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) plots to 20 persons under the government discretionary quota (GDQ) at Shollinganallur phase-III scheme on Jan. 20, 2011, a week after GDQ was scrapped, as announced by the Governor in his address to the Assembly.

According to the documents provided by the public information officer of TNHB’s Besant Nagar division, out of 82 allotments of plots and flats made under the GDQ since 2006, 20 were made on Jan. 20 this year.

“The allotment is illegal since it was made after the Governor’s announcement in the Assembly,” RTI activist V. Gopalakrishnan, who exposed the irregularities in the allotment of houses, flats and plots of the board under GDQ, said, urging the TNHB to cancel all the allotments made after the Governor’s address in January.

In his customary address on Jan. 7 this year, the then Governor Surjit Singh Barnala said, “The system of allotting houses and plots under the GDQ in vogue for the past several years in TNHB is being put to an end from today.”

As per the system that was in vogue since 1979, 85 per cent of plots, flats or houses of the board was sold through draw of lots, which would be governed by the rules of reservation prescribed by the state government. The remaining 15 per cent was given through the GDQ.

One among the 82 beneficiaries in Shollinganallur was Union minister M.K. Alagiri’s son Dhayanidhi, who got a 4,114 sq ft plot. State housing minister R. Vaithilingam told the Assembly recently that the board’s rules were violated to allot land worth Rs 60.34 lakh at Shollinganallur to Dayanidhi under ‘social worker category’ on Feb. 7, 2007.