Kerala - Kottayam   

Anti-encroachment drive in Kottayam

Staff Reporter

13 cents on railway station road restored

KOTTAYAM: The district authorities on Friday took the first cautious step towards demolitions of unauthorised constructions and illegal possession of land in Kottayam town. The first to fall prey to the restoration campaign was 13 cents of land worth Rs.65 lakh, on the railway station road, which was held by two parties. An eight-cent plot held by Mali Towers and five-cent plot by the Safa Trade Centre were taken over by the authorities.

The constructions in the front portion of the Mali Tower were also removed. Later, the encroachment on YMCA Road and unauthorised possession and construction on CMS College Road were also demolished. In many of the cases, the owners of illegal possessions, who received summary eviction notices, expressed willingness to hand over the land to the authorities.

The demolition on CMS College Road led to an acrimonious situation when some of the priests of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, who were in possession of the plot, said that they had expressed their willingness to handover the land to the authorities and as such the demolition drive would put them in a bad shade.

They wanted the authorities to allow them to remove the boundary wall and a temporary building on the plot, themselves. Tension prevailed for some time as the authorities refused to budge.

According to district authorities, they have moved against only those cases in which the illegal owners themselves expressed their readiness to hand over the encroached land and illegal constructions. The operations will continue, they said. The Special Task Force issued notices in more than 30 cases in the town in Thirunakkara area in the heart of the town.

Large-scale encroachments have come to light at the Aida junction too. Meanwhile, the revenue authorities started issuing summary eviction notices to identified encroachments. In a few cases, the hearing in such cases too began on Friday.

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Anti-encroachment drive in Kottayam

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