CHENNAI: After cracking the whip against city clubs which defaulted payment of rentals for lands leased from the government for decades, Tamil Nadu has now begun targeting entities functioning on those parcels of lands.

As part of its efforts to recover long pending lease rental from the Madras Race Club (MRC), it has written to realty major, DLF Universal Ltd, which had taken about 100 grounds (one ground = 2,400sqft) on sub-lease from the club, to stop Rs 3 crore per month lease rental to the club and, instead, remit the amount to the government account forthwith.

In a notice sent to the company, tahsildar, Guindy said 160.86-acres of land in Velachery and Guindy taluks had been leased out to MRC. The lessee had defaulted to pay the lease rents to the government to the tune of Rs 730.86 crore. Calling it a mammoth pecuniary loss to the government, the notice said the district collector had now issued orders to recover the amount due to the government.

The notice further pointed out that under the 'revenue enquiry manifest', it was found that there is an agreement of lease executed between MRC and DLF Universal Ltd for a monthly lease rent of Rs 3 crore payable to the club as lease rent. "DLF Universal Ltd / DLF Group of Companies, if any who owe any money to MRC are required to remit amounts directly to the government account by way of demand draft in favour of "the tahsildars, Velachery and Guindy taluks", the notice directed.

"How can the government ask us to pay the amount directly to it, when there is no binding agreement between us and the state government. If the club owes the government pending lease rentals, the government should take steps to recover it from the club directly," a DLF official told TOI, on condition of anonymity. The company was also baffled that the notice was mailed to it by the government through a private email id.

DLF had in December, 2006 successfully bid for the 5.56-acre prime land parcel located on Velachery Main Road and adjacent to Park Hyatt hotel. It outbid several others, including Unitech, Taj GVK, Oberoi Hotels, B Raheja and Emaar, for the land parcel offered on a long term lease of 66 years.

However, DLF, which did not reveal the lease rental consideration then, planned to develop a mall at the site, which continues to remain vacant even after a decade. The company has reportedly paid in excess of Rs 300 crore as lease rental so far for the land.

Last month, the state government, invoking the Tamil Nadu Revenue Recovery Act 1984, froze the accounts of prominent clubs, including MCC, TNCA and Madras Race Club, in the city as part of its initiatives to recover the dues. The clubs moved Madras high court, which permitted the clubs to operate one bank account to run their day-to-day operations and payment salaries to employees.

Courtesy TOI