Housing Minister refutes Annamalai’s allegations

The BJP’s State president has alleged that the government favours a particular private real estate developer

Tamil Nadu Minister for Housing and Urban Development S. Muthusamy has refuted the allegations levelled by BJP State president K. Annamalai that the government favoured a particular private real estate developer.

Mr. Annamalai had alleged that Mr. Muthusamy’s Ministry was granting approval at an unusually faster pace for the projects executed by G Square. In particular, he cited three projects in Coimbatore, at Egattur in Chengalpattu district and Neelankarai in Chennai.

Addressing media persons here on Wednesday, the Minister said the majority of the details, particularly the dates, provided by Mr. Annamalai were incorrect.

He said the applications for these projects were not even filed in the name of G Square. For instance, he said, the application for land conversion for the nearly 125-acre project in Coimbatore was filed by one Siva Manickam when the AIADMK was in power. He said the approval for land conversion and the subsequent approval by the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) for the layouts were granted before the DMK came to power. He said the approvals by the local body concerned came earlier this year after a prolonged delay.

In the case of Egattur, the application for layout approval for 7.47 acres was submitted in the name of one Mahavir Santh on October 7, 2021, he said. Approval was granted 36 days later on November 12. He said the relatively faster approval was possible because of the delegation of powers to the district authorities for less than 10 acres.

Explaining that the approvals were generally sought for three stages, viz. land conversion, layouts and building construction, he said the approvals for layouts took lesser time.

As for faster approvals by the Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority (TNRERA), he said the organisation was mandated to process applications within 30 days.