Kozhikode: The district administration is awaiting the response from the State Government to evict the encroachers from the surplus land in Raroth village at Ambayathode, near Thamarassery, in Kozhikode district.

Senior Government officials told The Hindu here on Sunday that District Collector Rachna Shah had submitted a report detailing the situation at Ambayathode to the State Government on Saturday. This was following an order from the High Court of Kerala last Thursday directing the Government to evict the encroachers from 126 acres of Government land within 10 days.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice V.K. Bali and Justice P.R. Raman had also warned the Government that contempt proceedings would be initiated against the Chief Secretary, Kozhikode District Collector and Superintendent of Police (Kozhikode Rural) if the court order was not complied with.

Sources said the report was primarily an assessment of the situation at Ambayathode where 700-800 people are residing in Government land for over 10 years. Some of the people had left the place. The report also mentioned that stiff resistance was expected from the encroachers. "It would be difficult, but we would have to implement the court orders," they said.

Meanwhile, it is also learnt that the Government is seeking legal opinion on the issue. The case has been posted for further hearing on June 27, sources said.

The Government Pleader had sought time to make a specific statement on the stand of the Government when the petition was heard last week. The Court wanted the Government to inform whether it was prepared to take steps to evict the encroachers. In March 1997, a Division Bench of the High Court had directed the Government to evict the encroachers from the 126 acres of land, which the Malabar Produce and Rubber Company had surrendered to the Government in 1989. Over 1,400 people had encroached upon the land in 1995.

The High Court initiated suo motu proceedings in 2002 following the non-compliance of its order.

But a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court stayed the eviction while admitting a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by the then three MLAs, C.K Nanu, Mathai Chacko and T.P. Ramakrishnan, from Kozhikode district.

The Bench consisting of Chief Justice B.N. Srikrishna and Justice G. Sasidharan had then directed the authorities not to evict the occupants of land. However, the PIL was dismissed in February 2002.

During the previous LDF rule, the issue had cropped up. Most of the illegal occupants are affiliated to various political parties.

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