Protest against delay in title deed transfer held in Tirunelveli

Police on Monday arrested 39 people, including 14 women, when they blocked vehicular traffic on Palayamkottai – Thoothukudi Highway in protest against delay in transfer of title deeds by Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board in Tirunelveli

Police on Monday arrested 39 people, including 14 women, when they blocked vehicular traffic on Palayamkottai – Thoothukudi Highway in protest against delay in transfer of title deeds by Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board in Tirunelveli

demanding transfer of title deed to their names for housing plots, for which most of them had paid the land cost in installments to the

 The protestors said 32.10 acres of land at Manakaavalanpillai Nagar in Palayamkottai (survey number 666 / 1 A 1) was acquired by Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board in 1990 to be given as housing plots to poor beneficiaries under the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Scheme for a nominal price fixed by the State Government. Subsequently, 950 housing plots were created and allotment orders were given to the beneficiaries by the board.

 While a good number of allottees had paid the cost of the land in instalments, some were paying the amount even now.

 “However, the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, which should have handed over the title deed to the beneficiaries in their names after they paid the cost of the land in instalments, is dragging the process. When the beneficiaries questioned the officials about the delay, they said the Department of Revenue was yet to transfer the land to the board and, hence, the title deed cannot be executed in the names of the beneficiaries,” said R. Mani of Manakaavalanpillai Nagar and an allottee who had paid the full cost of the land.

Officials of the Revenue Department claimed that they could not handover the land to Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board as the land was categorised as ‘water body’. However, the beneficiaries said the land, even a dry water body in disuse, acquired by an arm of the government for distribution as housing plots, could be given to the poor for construction of houses based on a judgment by the Madras High Court on July 30, 2012 on a writ petition (WP 18999/03).

 The protestors also said the Special Commissioner for Land Reforms had recommended the transfer of title deed in his letter dated November 15, 1994 and then the Tirunelveli District Collector in April 2020.