KOCHI: The district administration will resume the eviction drive to clear encroachments on M.G. Road on Monday, District Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish has said.

Talking to reporters at the district administration headquarters at Kakkanad on Thursday, Mr. Hanish said the State Government had granted only three days' notice to the encroachers and not seven days.

Once the surveying, issuance of notice and subsequent eviction on M.G. Road up to Thevara was completed, the focus would be shifted to clearing encroachments on rivers, canals and backwaters, Mr. Hanish said. Stating that Taluk-level survey was progressing well, Mr. Hanish picked Aluva for special mention for the spectacular progress made.

He said surveying and serving of notice was suspended for a day on Thursday so as to avoid any kind of provocation on the part of the district administration and to give the officials involved the much-needed rest. He, however, said the process would resume on Friday.

Two teams had served notices on establishments on M.G. Road up to the area near Jose junction and Maharaja's College ground junction respectively, he said.

He urged encroachers to make use of the time and demolish on their own the illegal structures. Regarding the traders' complaint that unscientific demolition of structures encroaching on revenue land had caused permanent damages to the basic building structures existing on their rightful land, Mr. Hanish said that no such incidents had come to his notice. He further said that all possible precautions to avoid such damages were taken during the drive.

He said that the priority would be for evicting big encroachments while small encroachers would be given more than three days as decided by the Government. Where the Local Self-Government Institutions had taken initiative to settle the small-time encroachers, the district administration would not resort to punitive action, he said.

Mr. Hanish said he had not acted arbitrarily as alleged by certain quarters but was only following a circular issued by Revenue Secretary Niveditha P. Haran. The circular asked for the creation of Task Forces to clear encroachments swiftly and submission of daily reports to the revenue department.

Mr. Hanish, who is also the chairman of the District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC), declined to comment on the allegation by `Greens' that the council had flouted laws to fill up the Periyar for constructing a restaurant, stating that the matter was before the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, he expressed doubts that two major hotels, which were yet to come under the eviction drive on M.G. Road were situated on encroached land.

He also suspected foul play in the Field Measurement Book with the abetment of the officials as a result of which Government land has been shown under private ownership.

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