Vellore: The ‘Kamaraj Bhavan’ opposite the Ambur Railway station with nine shops which were let out for rent were closed, following a clash between two groups of party men owning allegiance to Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) and the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) over the ownership of the building.
According to sources, the Kamaraj Bhavan property was donated to Congress Party in 1956 by the native philanthropist Subramania Chettiar to then Chief Minister K.Kamaraj. After a Trust was formed the Bhavan was converted into a shopping complex on the ground floor and on the first floor the Congress office was functioning for the past ten years.
Mohamed Sardar who runs a biriyani shop there said the Bhavan’s Trust was getting at least Rs one lakh per month as rent from all these shops and it gave them a shock when all the shops including the Congress Office on the first-floor were sealed on Wednesday.
While all the trustees who managed the trust later became members of the TMC, the ownership of the building after the split of the parent Congress became the bone of contention.
On Wednesday morning Kuppusamy, one of the trust members, began distributing free sarees and dhoties to the poor at the complex, an altercation ensued between the two groups of congressmen and snowballed into physical scuffle sources said. The TMC men were ruthlessly attacked, it was alleged, and were taken to the nearby GH for treatment.
Tahsildar Ratna who came along with police ordered closure of all the nine shops on the ground floor and sealed them. She also sealed the entire Congress Bhavan.
The police who came to the spot arrested 14 TMC members and 18 Congress party members took them to the police station. Later they were released in the evening, the police said.
Many of the shop owners who were running their business from the ground floor are keeping their fingers crossed over the future of their small businesses.
Some of the shop owners met the Thiruppathur sub-collector and later met the tahsildar Ms Ratna. The officials had promised the shop owners that a suitable action would be taken in the near future and till then they should wait, sources added.
