The Hindu : Kerala News : Eviction drive will continue, says Achuthanandan

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Monday, Jul 09, 2007
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Kerala

Eviction drive will continue, says Achuthanandan

Special Correspondent

Charges Opposition with indulging in a propaganda against the effort

V.S.Achuthanandan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has said that the ongoing Opposition campaign to discredit the eviction drive in Munnar will not stop the Government from recovering public land from the possession of land grabbers.

In a statement here on Sunday, he said there was no substance in the propaganda unleashed by the Opposition and certain sections of the media that the Cabinet was divided over the question of recovering alienated Government land in Munnar from Tata Tea company. What the Opposition had done to create such an impression was to distort the content of the statement the Revenue Minister had given in the Assembly on July 5. Some sections of the media too joined this propaganda. “People with vested interests are trying to protect Tata Tea and other big land grabbers through this campaign,” he said.Tata Tea had installed its signboard in front of the 1,280-acre (about 515-hectare) government property at Nayamakkad in Munnar. “I went to the place with the task force [handling the eviction drive] on July 3. The signboard was removed and a signboard of the Government was installed in its place. This was a step that had infused new vigour into the ongoing mission to recover land illegitimately being be held by Tata Tea company in Munnar,” he said.

He said 60 acres (about 22 hectares) in the property at Nayamakkad was notified under the Vesting of Ecologically Fragile Lands Act in 2003.

Even this notified area had not been demarcated with boundary stones. The remaining extend of 1,220 acres (about 493 hectares) of the property had not yet been formally notified as ‘forest land.’

What the task force did at Nayamakkad in his presence on July 3 could not be termed as “grabbing land from the possession of Tata Tea company.”

Recovery of government land

It was purely “recovery of government land from the company’s possession,” he said.

The immediate reaction of the company’s representative (telecast by various channels) to the event was that the company would haul the Chief Minister before the court.

The same representative changed his stand within a short time (coming on the television) to assert that the land taken over did not belong to the company.

“He had changed the views upon my warning that, if the company were to cause hurdles for this mission to recover public land, the Government would even consider cancelling the lease deed [under which the company is holding large tracts of estates in Munnar],” Mr. Achuthanandan said.

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