The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : Commissioner restrained

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Sunday, May 01, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Commissioner restrained

Staff Reporter

MADURAI: : The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday restrained the Land Reforms Commissioner from granting pattas in respect of 624 cents of land in a "dense forest area" at Kottagudi in Theni district.

A Division Bench, comprising Justice P.K. Misra and Justice A.R. Ramalingam, granted the interim injunction on a public interest litigation moved by the former chairman of Bodinaickanur municipality.

According to the petitioner, the State Government, by a notification on December 1, 2003, acquired the land from a private tea company in Kerala, alleging that the business firm was holding it as surplus land.

Though the company had occupied the area for a long period, no tea plantation was raised there and instead the land situated in the Western Ghats wassurrounded by thick forest, and was notified as reserve forest under the Tamil Nadu Forest Act, he contended.

But, on acquiring the land, the Land Reforms Commissioner and the Assistant Commissioner, Land Ceiling and Land Reforms, Madurai, decided to distribute the land to landless people and also issue pattas to the beneficiaries.

"The Assistant Commissioner is about to issue pattas for construction of resorts in the hilly area adjoining Munnar on the pretext of distributing lands to landless persons," the petitioner alleged.

The petitioner's counsel, M. Ajmal Khan, contended that distribution of the land would not only destroy the forest area but also exploit the Kottagudi river, running through the Western Ghats, which is the prime source of drinking water for Bodinaickanur.

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