The decks have been cleared for the proposed construction of a building for the Nadigar Sangam in T. Nagar, with the Madras High Court on Tuesday vacating its earlier order directing the office-bearers to maintain status quo on the construction.
Last May, K.M. Srirangan and R. Annamalai, residents of T. Nagar, filed a writ petition alleging that the Nadigar Sangam Charitable Trust and the South Indian Artistes Association had encroached upon a 33-foot public road connecting Habibullah Road and Prakasam Street.
The matter came up before the Division Bench, comprising Justices N. Kirubakaran and V. Parthiban, on Tuesday. After going through the report submitted by the Advocate-Commissioner and other documents produced by the Sangam, the court noticed that the petitioners had made out no prima facie case. Hours after the Madras High Court vacated the stay on construction of a new building on the Nadigar Sangam’s property in T. Nagar, Nadigar Sangam’s general secretary Vishal on Tuesday said that the construction of the new building would start immediately and asked detractors not to throw a spanner in the work.
“Please don’t waste your time by looking for corruption. We also have a system similar to ‘Bigg Boss’. We work transparently and anyone can come and question us on our decisions. From tomorrow, we will start the tender process. The building will be ready by August next year,” said Mr. Vishal.
He said that a 1,000-seater auditorium would be constructed on the 18-ground property with ample parking space. “We don’t have an auditorium to organise award functions. We also want to provide our theatre actors space to perform. Apart from this auditorium, we will also have an 800-seat marriage hall and a small 300-seat mini-hall, which will be given free for our members to hold family functions,” he said.
Furthermore, Mr. Vishal said that the verdict had shown that there would be no problems as long as people follow the laws. “The court has said today that there is no prima facie case. We were waiting for this verdict. Our hands are clean and we have followed every legal procedure,” he said.
He also said that the slab for GST should be increased to ₹120 from the current price of ₹100. “Right now, GST is fixed at 28% for tickets priced above ₹100 and 14% for tickets priced below ₹100. I hope that this is raised to ₹120. The industry has no qualms in paying tax to the Centre if it is serious about clamping down on piracy,” he said.