As shared by Dr S.Paulraj, Executive Chairman, Chennai Snake Park Trust
A government property extending over an area of about one acre, worth more than Rs.50 crores, located in a prime locality at OMR, Kottivakkam, was retrieved from a land-grabbing mafia by the Collector of Chennai recently.
This property originally belonged to the Chennai Sanke Park Trust and was relinquished in favour of the Revenue department as compensatory land in lieu of 1 acre of forest land received from the Forest department for establishing the Chennai Snake Park in 2004. As per the Government order, this land was to be transferred to the Forest department by the Revenue department. However, as the transferring process was dragging on between the Revenue and Forest departments for the past 15 years, the legal heirs of the previous owner who sold the land to the Trust, knowing the very high value of the land, attempted to get back the land by hiding the fact that the said land had been already sold to the Trust. With the active connivances of both – the Registration department and Revenue department, they successfully got the land in their names. When this fact came to the attention of the Trust, the Executive Chairman of the Trust, represented the concerned higher authorities of both Registration and Revenue departments such as IG registration, Collector Chennai and Commissioner Land Administration and fought against the illegal allotment and registration. Even after the past three years of legal fight by the Trust, the illegal owners were able to retain their claim.
As a last resort, the Executive Chairman of the Trust, Dr S. Paulraj, brought the fact to the personal attention of the present Collector, Chennai and the IG Registration. As a result of the Collector’s dynamic leadership, the District Revenue Officer, A. Anusuya Devi has conducted a fast enquiry and issued a proceeding cancelling the illegal allotment orders and thereby retrieved the said land to the possession of the Revenue department within a recorded period of two months. The Registration department on its part through the proceedings of the District Registrar, S. Sathyapria, cancelled all illegal registrations and also ordered for criminal action against those persons – Viswanathan, Devakumar, Mahalingam and four others from Chennai, who attempted to grab the land by manipulating the records of the Registration department.
