Chennai, Aug. 10: Five software companies, including some big players, will not get the 123 acres they had been allotted by the previous regime after Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK scrapped the deal citing “serious irregularities”.

The government said if the deal had gone through, the state could have lost “several crores of rupees”.

The companies that will lose the land — in Sholinganallur on the way to Mamallapuram along the upcoming IT corridor — include Cognizant Technologies (20 acres), Megasoft (25 acres), Benchmark Soft Tech (25 acres), Advance Software (50 acres) and Proton Web (three acres).

Chief minister M. Karunanidhi said his government had discovered “serious irregularities” in the deal but decided it was better to rescind the allotments than refer the matter for a probe by the state directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption.

Karunanidhi today told the Assembly his cabinet’s decision to scrap the deal was not hasty, after the issue was raised by Congress member C. Gnanasekaran, who alleged that the Rs 48 lakh-an-acre sale price finalised by the Jayalalithaa regime was much lower than the market value.

The chief minister said the land originally belonged to the state-owned Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, and a careful study of the files showed that a consultant appointed by the corporation to vet the deal was itself “in violation of existing rules”.

Karunanidhi said all the formalities involved in sale of government land to private firms were rushed through in just three days by the consultant.

The DMK boss added that the electronics corporation put up the files for clearance “in just one day” without even examining the consultant’s report. Moreover, he said, the report and the recommendations of the consultant were not placed before the corporation’s board.

“In view of these irregularities, we were forced to cancel the land allocations, which helped save several crores of rupees for the state government,” Karunanidhi said.

The government, he added, was contemplating further action.