The Nerkundram housing scheme, promoted by Tamil Nadu housing board (TNHB) should, perhaps, be called the ‘Adarsh scam’ of Tamil Nadu! The manner in which the ‘own your house’ scheme, meant exclusively for government officers/employees, unfolded from formulation to implementation stage is testimony to the shoddy land management policy of successive governments.

For instance, GO No. 56, issued in February 2011 to facilitate allotment of flats at Nerkundram to government officials, in this case senior IAS/IPS/IFS officials, provided for 6 per cent reduction in supervisory charges, against the normal 12.5 per cent charged for other schemes.

TNHB also fixed a marginal 5 per cent as profit ceiling, notwithstanding the fact that the board was formed with the sole intention of providing home to the homeless, particularly the marginalised low- and middle-income groups.

Not just Nerkundram, TNHB has been promoting schemes for the well-off and high-income group for a while now. CPM deputy legislature party leader K. Balabarathy says, “TNHB deviated from its original policy of helping homeless, daily wage earners and middle-class get a permanent habitat and started helping bureaucrats and well-off in wealth creation.”

Ordinary people cannot even imagine buying a house or plot not just in Chennai, but in any city in the state, she pointed out.

Retired IAS officer M.G. Devasagayam said, “Providing one house to a civil servant is ok. But this is wealth creation. Totally against the basic fundamentals of government service.

He suggested a major policy revision with the government preparing a complete inventory of land owned and prepare a comprehensive land management policy.