Pensioner’s plea for patta transfer pending with officials for 45 years

VELLORE: Chief Minister MK Stalin’s direction to Vellore officials on not to make beneficiaries in patta related cases trek to government offices needlessly has obviously fallen on deaf ears if one goes by the 45 year-long battle for patta transfer initiated by a 81-year-old person recently is any indication.

P Segaran, a retired BSNL employee, purchased 27.11 cents land from C Ramamurthy on October 27, 1978 and registered it the same day. He also applied for patta transfer to his name the same day, but till date, officials have seen to it that his request was not fulfilled.

What was galling was that the then Vellore Municipality without any intimation entered on his land and laid a 40 X 87 cement road forcing him to move the court. “The court first provided an interim injunction followed by a permanent injunction in my favour on this issue,” Segaran told DT Next.

Strangely, the Vellore Municipality went on appeal in the issue 15 years later, “which was later dismissed” he said. Having won all court cases, Segaran found that he still had a long way to go to taste victory. “The local body in a stalling tactic suddenly said the property in question (673/2A – 673/2K) had undergone 11 sub division in the name of 8 persons and that it included 2 streets,” he said.

“In 2019, I used the RTI route to find out details of the 11 subdivisions and received a reply that the local body office had no details of when the patta was sub divided. When I wanted to know about documents in which my property was converted to streets, I received a reply stating that there were no such documents,” Segaran added.

The matter took a twist when the local body belatedly compensated him for the land taken for the road, but Segaran again faced a struggle when he requested a patta for the remaining 15.46 cents.

“I submitted a petition to the Collector at the weekly grievances day meet on February 6 when Collector Kumaravel Pandian demanded to know “why I should be given a patta.” I felt ashamed as his words were heard by everybody and made me feel as if I was in the wrong when all I was asking was a patta for my land,” Segaran said. He now plans to meet Chief Minister Stalin directly to get justice.