DMK govt cancels GO on land issued during AIADMK regime

Chennai, Aug 9 (UNI) The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu, has cancelled a Government Order (GO), issued by the previous AIADMK regime, allotting 123 acres of land owned by state-owned Electronic Corporation (ELCOT) to five software companies.

A recent cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister M Karunandihi, cancelled the GO, holding that the previous AIADMK government had unilateraly allotted the lands to the software companies, without applying its mind and violating all guidelines, an official release here said.

After being stung by the ''Tansi land deal case,'' the previous AIADMK government seems to have been caught on the ''Elcot land deal case'' now, as the cabinet also ordered further action on the issue.

Already a public interest litigation, seeking a CBI probe into the ''land deal'' and a case filed by the Association of x-servicemen and pensioners are pending in Madras High Court.

The previous government had allotted 123 acres of land off the IT corridor at Sozhinganallur to Cognizant Technologies (20 acres), Megasoft (25 acres), Benchmark Soft Tech (25 acres), Proton Web (three acres) and Advance Software (50 acres) at the rate of 48 lakh per acre.

After the cabinet, headed by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa gave its nod for the land allocation, a GO was issued on March one, 2006 for this purpose, but the same was withheld, as by then, the code of conduct for the May eight assembly elections came into force, the release said.

The release disputed a claim made by a bi-weekly that the present government had not initiated any action into the land deal. The magazine alleged that the lands valued at Rs three to nine crore an acre, was given to the software firms at a paltry rate.

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