Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on 23 December 2025, announced that religious buildings covered under the Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules, 2019, would be granted planning permission without insisting on a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the district collector for the period between 2019 and 2024.
The announcement was made while addressing the ‘Christmas Festival 2025’ organised by the Minority Welfare Wing of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam at the Don Bosco School campus in Perambur, Chennai. Stalin said the decision would also apply to religious buildings that had applied for planning permission during the said period.
Extending Christmas greetings at the outset, the Chief Minister said the Dravidian Model government had been consistently implementing schemes aimed at safeguarding the welfare and rights of minority communities. Referring to a Christmas programme held earlier in Tirunelveli, he recalled that he had announced four major measures for minorities at that event, which were widely appreciated as addressing long-pending demands even before formal representations were made.
Stalin said the government was committed to ensuring that minorities lived with dignity and security, and that policies were being designed with the objective of bringing “light and hope” into their lives. He added that the latest announcement was made in response to a request raised by party functionary Inigo, whom he described as someone who never failed to place demands wherever he went.
Calling upon party workers and supporters, the Chief Minister urged them to take the government’s welfare measures and achievements to every household and stand as a strong support base for the administration.
In his address, Stalin also referred to what he described as an atmosphere of fear being experienced by minorities across the country. He said the DMK possessed both the ideological clarity and political strength to oppose authoritarian forces that threatened constitutional rights. He added that the party had been actively working on the ground to protect voting rights during initiatives such as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and continued to remain vigilant on this front.
Stalin concluded by asserting that India’s strength lay in its democratic and secular ethos, where people who believed in equality, fraternity, and peaceful coexistence formed the majority. He said that as long as such democratic forces stood united with public support, “no fascist force” could prevail, and assured that the DMK and its secular progressive alliance would remain firmly alongside minority communities, while seeking their continued support in return.
Source: Hindu Tamil
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