Chennai Corporation to push to retrieve DMK land

CHENNAI: Terming the Chennai Corporation’s latest move as a ‘final act’ to retrieve open space reservation (OSR) land from the DMK headquarters — Anna Arivalayam — Mayor Saidai S Duraisamy on Friday urged the State to pass a notification to reclaim the land that was illegally encroached by the DMK for decades.While replying to a question by AIADMK’s 117th Ward Councillor P Arumugam, Duraisamy informed the Council that the DMK Trust, which maintains the land, has not issued any gift deed for the 1,893 sqm OSR land to CMDA yet.Irked over the AIADMK councillors raking up the issue again, DMK’s floor leader Subash Chandra Bose objected to the discussion and asked the Mayor to focus on public welfare issues that required the Council’s immediate attention. After Bose’s observation, a heated exchange ensued between AIADMK and DMK members. Condemning the unfriendly gesture of the AIADMK members inside the Hall and for giving undue importance to the land issue in every Council meet, DMK members staged a walkout.Later, the Mayor said the Council is waging its final battle to retrieve the land from Anna Arivalayam.Recalling the history of the dispute, he said, “The DMK Trust, which got a conditional exemption for maintaining the OSR land after promising to develop an orphanage inside its plot, hasn’t constructed any orphanage.”