The Hindu : Front Page : Illegal buildings in Kochi razed to the ground

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Wednesday, May 23, 2007
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Illegal buildings in Kochi razed to the ground

Staff Reporter

Drive against encroachments to continue

DEMOLITION DRIVE: Illegal constructions on M.G. Road in Kochi being demolished on Tuesday. - Photo: Vipinchandran

KOCHI: Even as the eviction and demolition drive in Munnar is hogging the limelight, a new front was opened on Tuesday in the fight against encroachments in the State with the Ernakulam district administration demolishing two dozen illegal buildings in the M.G. Road region, the heartland of Kochi.

A 50-member team of the district administration headed by District Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish led the drive. A large posse of police force led by City Commissioner Manoj Abraham was deployed to provide all assistance and security to the officials involved in the action. No incidents of protests were reported till evening.

The eviction drive started from Madhava Pharmacy Junction by demolishing the front portion of the outlet of a prominent retail chain, which had reportedly encroached on 7 metres of Government land. By evening, the area up to Padma Junction was cleared of encroachments, ranging from 3 to 16 metres on the Revenue land.

As the evictions were progressing on one side, many individual and commercial establishments in other parts were found undertaking corrective action by demolishing illegal constructions on their own based on the markings made during the survey.

Follow-up

This was expected to ease the work of the officials in the coming days.

The eviction drive was launched as a follow-up of the last four days' survey during the course of which two teams of the district administration marked the encroached areas.

A third team pressed into service on Monday verified and confirmed the marked encroachments and served a 24-hour statutory notice under Section 11 (3) of the Kerala Land Conservancy Act, 1957 on 35 individual and commercial establishments.

The police had a tough time controlling the crowd and the earthmovers involved in the action had to literally jostle with the crowd for space for moving from one area to the other. The trading activities in the area almost came to a standstill.

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