By G Saravanan
Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on November 11, 2011:
CHENNAI: Giving a taste of its ‘exemplary service’ to general public, especially to senior citizens, the Egmore-Nungambakkam taluk office has been sitting on an application for patta transfer (land title) submitted by a 73-year-old retired railway employee from Arumbakkam for the last five years.
When the applicant recently approached the office, they told him that the application has gone missing and asked him to submit a fresh one to start the process once again. To obtain the transfer of land rights from his father’s name, S Sampath, son of A K Sundararaj Mudaliar of Pillayar Koil Street at Arumbakkam, had submitted an applicant ion at the taluk office in November 2006.“Since 2006, I have been visiting the taluk office very often and every time I ask for it, the officials narrate one reason or the other to delay the issuance deliberately,” a visually dejected Sampath told Express.He wanted to develop the land measuring about eight grounds (valued over Rs 50 crore) with survey number 23/3A1 at Koyambedu. With the taluk officials dodging him with unwanted queries, Sampath chose the RTI mode to ascertain why his application has been delayed. However, the officials failed to provide any information about his application and its status. Irked, Sampath went ahead with approaching the taluk’s appellate authority.When the appellate authority too turned a blind eye, Sampath approached the Madras High Court, which in turn directed the State Information Commissioner and the taluk office to provide the information within four weeks.When even this came to a naught, Sampath submitted an appeal with the CM’s Special Cell asking them to direct the taluk office to issue the patta transfer soon. When contacted, a taluk official said that no such application is pending with them and that the delay may be due to discrepancies or legal obstacles.
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