Check land-grab mafia, Government urged

PUDUCHERRY: Alleging that land grabbing in rural areas like  Villianur,Ariyur and Mangalam is being done by a coordinated network of land  mafia,  Congress MLA and former Minister  C Jayakumar has  urged the Puducherry government to curb the practice.Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Jayakumar said that around eight acres of land valued at Rs 30 crores near Kannagi School, have been sold by forging land documents. The property had not only been registered with forged documents but even the patta had been transferred, affecting the five corresponding land owners. “The land was purchased by those living in huts in government poromboke lands. The documents were being forged under the guise of French documents and the owners of the lands were being threatened to part with their land for meagre amounts.” He questioned the  sub-registrar and said that action should be initiated against him, because he was the one responsible for registering the documents.  Jayakumar alleged that when land grabbing happened in urban areas, there was always a spurt of action, but no initiatives were taken in rural areas. Similar incidents of land grabbing were reported in Ariyur and Mangalam,  in rural Puducherry. Those lands were divided into plots and sold to gullible buyers.