The resolutions are valid documents and can be accepted as evidence at court: Corpn yet to collect Rs 35 cr lease dues

Earlier, when the elected council was in place, the resolutions would be made public on the same day when they were passed in the council meeting and uploaded to the Chennai Corporation’s official website.

The civic body, however, began to deviate from the usual practice to hide the documents which might attract debate or opposition. “Several weeks after the resolutions were passed, the administration had uploaded resolutions passed in June and July only now. Those documents have some resolutions regarding the appointment of staff, which was done by contravening the norms,” a Chennai Corporation source said.

He added that the administration tried to keep the public from knowing about the appointments.

According to the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919 no works, minor or major, ought not to be implemented without council resolution. The resolutions are valid documents and could be accepted as evidence in the court of law.

Meanwhile, another the source pointed out that the civic body had written off unaccounted money spent up to 2002 citing the documents were lost and damaged. “This resolution would have attracted opposition if they were released immediately. This delay is equivalent to cheating the public,” the source said.

When contacted a senior official, he said that there is no mandate in the Act to upload the resolutions to the website. “We are uploading the resolutions only to keep the public informed. As per the rules, residents should pay Rs 100 per resolution to get a copy, but we are providing it for free,” he added.

A few months ago, the civic body had removed some resolutions from the document that prompted activists to raise suspicion of misappropriation. But, the civic body had claimed that the resolutions were removed only to make some corrections.

The Greater Chennai Corporation is losing crores of rupees every year as the civic body officials are baffled over their inability to collect pending lease amounts from the lease defaulter from whom they had reclaimed their property near Anna Nagar.

According to GM Shankar, an activist and resident of Madipakkam, the civic officials had reclaimed 4.3-acre land worth Rs 280 crore that was leased to Thiru Vi Ka Dr Mu Va Educational Institute for 33 years in Shenoy Nagar. “But officials had failed to collect the dues from the management,” he said.

In its affidavit filed in high court in 2010, the civic body had mentioned that the educational institution had failed to pay lease – accumulated for 21 years to more than Rs 35 crore – to the Chennai Corporation. The land was reclaimed after the management had unsuccessfully moved High Court and then the Supreme Court. Officials reclaimed the land on October 25.

“While failing to collect the pending amount, the civic body had delayed reclaiming the land. The Supreme Court withheld the high court order in favour of Chennai Corporation in 2016. But, the officials implemented the order after a delay of three years,” he pointed out.

Shankar added that he had filed an RTI application seeking information about the 4.3 acres of land and steps taken to collect the pending dues. “The civic body should take steps to collect the money. Apart from Shenoy Nagar land, pending dues of other reclaimed properties also should be recovered,” he urged.

Meanwhile, a senior official said that they are waiting for the government’s directions pertaining to collecting the lease amount and restructuring rates.

“We will act once we get a clarification from the government. We cannot, however, charge them for the time the land was under sub-judice,” the official said.