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It is nearly five years since the Madras High Court Bench staff here raised a demand to build residential quarters for them, two years from when the State Government allotted 3.67 acres of land near Maattuthavani Integrated Bus Stand and a year since a Lok Adalat presided over by the then Chief Justice ordered commencement of construction work. Yet, not even a single brick has been moved to the site till date. The project was given shape in 2007 during the tenure of Justice Prafulla Kumar Misra who along with the then Collector T. Udhayachandran hit upon the 3.67 acres of land. A building plan for constructing more than 272 flats was drawn and approved by the then Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah. The Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) was entrusted with the construction work. It was planned to build with 16 ‘A’ type houses, 48 ‘B’ type, 112 ‘C’ type and 96 ‘D’ type houses to accommodate the court employees as per their cadre. The plan included a sprawling playground and a park within the premises. The TNHB was confident of completing the project within 15 to 16 months. But it could not even kick off for want of necessary funds. In May 2008, a lawyer, K. Govindarajan, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition to expedite the process. The PIL was placed before a Lok Adalat presided over by the then Chief Justice A.K. Ganguly, Law Commission Chairman AR. Lakshmanan and State Law Minister Durai Murugan in the presence of Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan during the inauguration of continuous Lok Adalat here on June 23, 2008. The Adalat directed the Government to complete the project preferably before December 2008. Subsequently, it was entrusted to the Public Works Department instead of TNHB and a Government Order allocating Rs.19.38 crore was also issued. A foundation stone laying ceremony for the project was held inside a court hall in the Madurai Bench on November 4, 2008. Thereafter, the court authorities sought to change the plan from ground plus three floors to ground plus four floors leaving the entire ground floor open for vehicle parking. In view of escalation in prices of construction materials and change in the plan, the PWD on February 19 this year sent a proposal for Rs.25.2 crore for Revised Administrative Sanction (RAS). “Since then, we have been sending periodic reminders to the Government to sanction funds. Unfortunately, nothing fruitful has transpired till date,” said a top court official. When contacted, a PWD engineer said that he was expecting the RAS within a week’s time. “Once we receive it, the technical sanction would be obtained and tenders would be floated for the project as soon as possible,” he added.

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