Chennai, June 8 (BPNS)
Tamil Nadu Minister for Housing and Urban Development, S. Muthusamy has denied the allegations of the state BJP president, K. Annamalai that the government supported a private builder in development projects.
The BJP president had alleged that Muthuswamy’s ministry was granting permissions at an unusually faster pace for the proposals by a particular real estate developer, G- Square.
Annamalai had alleged the three projects at Coimbatore, Chengalpattu and Chennai of the particular builder.
The minister in a press conference on Wednesday said that the allegations of the BJP state president, especially the dates were incorrect.
He said that when the AIADMK government was in power, a person named Siva Manickam had submitted an application for conversion of 125 acres of land and said that the approval by the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) for the layouts was granted before the DMK government had come to power.
He said that in the project at Egattur in Chengalpattu district layout approval for 7.54 acres of land was submitted in the name of one Mahavir Santh on October 7, 2021, and approval was given on November 12, 2021. The minister said that the approval was given in 36 days because of the delegation of powers to the district authorities for landed areas of less than 10 acres.
He said that the faster approvals by the Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority (TNRERA) were due to the fact that the agency was mandated to process applications within 30 days.
The minister also said that the department has not received any application in the name of G Square builders but added that the projects highlighted by the BJP president would have been sold to G Square at a later stage. He said that this was immaterial to the ministry.
He said that some applications from G Square were processed by the Greater Chennai Corporation and other local bodies as per law.
The minister said, “ It is immaterial as to which organization files the application, and what matters is whether we have violated any rules or granted any approvals illegally. We have not done anything illegally”.
