The Poes Garden residence of late former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa, is also set to become the State government’s property if all goes well in the next few months.
Chennai Collector R. Seethalakshmi issued a declaration, that that the acquisition of the property is necessary for ‘public purpose’ by invoking Section 19 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013 and Rules 16 of government rules.
The declaration, describing the property as “Veda Illam”, made it clear that upon public hearing and enquiry, the authorities concluded that the memorial project does not involve any relocation or displacement of families.
The property was purchased by Jayalalithaa’s mother Sandhya at a rate of ₹1.32 lakh in July 1967. The former CM’s residence measuring around 24,000 sq. ft was valued at 43.97 crores when it was assessed in 2016, just few months before Jayalalithaa died.
The memorial upon coming into existence will be the second such memorial in Chennai for a former Chief Minister. The other memorial that exists today is on Tirumalai Pillai Road in T. Nagar for the erstwhile celebrated CM of Tamil Nadu K. Kamaraj.