Arappor Iyakkam, an NGO, has urged the State government to investigate the alleged replacement of original property documents at the South Chennai Joint II Sub-Registrar office. Its convenor, Jayaram Venkatesan, said that an investigation by a registrar had led to the cancellation of registration of survey number 442 in May 2023.
“That is a government land. We had taken up investigation into 36 survey numbers, all these parcels of lands had been leased by the British government before the Independence. But post-independence, they were encroached upon by private people and sold several times over. We found that a data entry operator at that sub-registrar office and an accomplice were the ones involved in replacing parent documents in the record room. This is a breach of trust that the common man places in the government. We want this aspect to be investigated and government lands retrieved,” he said.
Mr. Venkatesan said that properties of these 36 survey numbers lay on MKN road, Butt Road, GST Road,in and around Alandur and St. Thomas Mount. Some of these properties had been pledged with banks for crores of rupees by private individuals. “These government properties have been registered in the names of private individuals by a sub-registrar, who registered the properties despite a 2015 order from the Alandur Tahsildar that these properties must not be sold. Fake documents were created.”
