Agricultural University in a spot over land deal

SALEM: The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) is in the thick of a controversy for a ‘land exchange deal’ with a private estate behind its Horticultural Research Station on the Yercaud campus.The private estate is located behind the Horticultural Research Station in Yercaud and is owned, as per revenue records, by two brothers from Salem (sold recently to a DMK bigwig).In order to provide access to the private estate, the University is said to have given away 1.5 acres of land and in return, taken five acres from the owners of the land.Apart from this, several fully-grown trees in the picturesque campus of the Horticultural Research Station had been felled to create way to the private estate. It is said that the felled trees remained uncleared on the campus for over two months and that the institution had taken permit from the District Committee for cutting down trees. The committee is headed by the Collector with the District Forest Officer as a member.Dr Murugesa Boopathy, VC of TNAU told Express that the 1.5-acre land has not been alienated for the private estate. “Only the right of way has been given and for this five acres have been taken from the estate. We have only taken land and not lost an inch of our property,” he said.  On the felling of trees, the VC said, “The institution got due permission to fell the trees, but the logs could not be cleared on time as the time given by the committee lapsed. The committee sits only once in a month and due to elections, the clearance was pending,” he said.On the need to give right of way which did not exist before, Boopathy said that the owners of the private land had obtained the right 110 years ago from a Britisher, Jeffery, then the owner of the present Research Station Campus. The TNAU planned to fence campuses of the 10 colleges, 37 research stations and 14 Kisan Vikas Kendras in the State.  “The private estate owners in Yercaud  planned to go to court against the fencing, claiming right to way. But before that they approached us. As discussed by the university board, it was decided to take five times the land in return for the 1.5 acres way,” the VC said.