Chennai: Tamil Nadu cabinet on Monday approved a proposal to regularise 86,241 encroachments on ‘poromboke’ land and grant house site pattas, mostly within a 32-km radius of Chennai.
Two teams will be formed to expedite the process within six months. This move will benefit 29,187 encroachers in the Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, and Tiruvallur districts.
Taking to X, chief minister M K Stalin said a solution to the 63-year-old problem of the poor was arrived at.
“At the cabinet meeting we decided to issue pattas to a total of 86,000 poor people, including 57,084 in corporations, municipalities, and district headquarters, including Madurai and Tirunelveli,” he said. The govt has distributed 12.29 lakh pattas since DMK assumed office in 2021.
A govt order from 1962 prohibits assigning vacant govt land in Chennai and within a 20-mile (32 km) radius. This ban originated from a request by chief engineer of public works department.
The ban encompasses 532 villages across Saidapet, Sriperumbudur, Chengalpet, and Ponneri taluks. The govt order clarified that the ban applies only to areas exceeding a few cents, govt sources said.
According to revenue and disaster management minister K K S S R Ramachandran, it was “a revolutionary move” by the chief minister.
It was brought to the notice of the chief minister the challenges faced by the administration in providing basic facilities to long-term encroachers within the 32 km radius of Chennai due to lack of pattas.
“This belt area order has been in force since 1962 and there was no action taken till 2025. Now the chief minister has ordered distribution of pattas within six months and committees at the district and state level be constituted for the purpose,” Ramachandran said. He also said the department was working on distributing pattas to an additional 6.29 lakh people.