The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Land acquisition norms being flouted, says Janakeeya Samithi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Land acquisition norms being flouted, says Janakeeya Samithi

Staff Reporter

In the case of Vallarpadam International Container Transhipment Terminal

KOCHI: The coordination committee of the Vallarpadam Road-Rail Janakeeya Samithi has warned of strong protests in the event the district administration and the State government going ahead with forcible acquisition of land for the road-rail connectivity for the project.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, C.R. Neelakantan, social activist and environmentalist, said the State government was in no position to complete the land acquisition for the road-rail connectivity within the deadline set for November 1.

He said that if the project were to be interrupted for want of completion of land acquisition, only the district administration and the State government supporting its decisions would be responsible for it. He said the Union government norms governing the acquisition of land for the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) were being violated in the case of the Vallarpadam International Container Transhipment Terminal, which was declared a SEZ in 2006.

As per these norms, the government needed to acquire only 30 per cent of the land for the SEZ and the rest had to be acquired by the developer. “However, Dubai Ports World, the promoters of the Vallarpadam project, had not acquired even one cent of land,” Mr. Neelakantan said.

He said that a rehabilitation and resettlement plan was yet to be formulated for the people to be evicted for the connectivity of the project. He said the clearance granted by the Ministry of Environment among other things clearly stated that those affected should be properly compensated and rehabilitated before going ahead with the acquisition process and that the Ministry had the authority to revoke the clearance if any of the requisite conditions was violated.

Mr. Neelakantan said the affected people were not against the project. “But unfairly evicting them with the aid of the police in violation of human rights would be opposed,” he said.

He asked the authorities to consider the impact of nearly 2,000 containers reaching the already busy Kalamassery stretch of the National Highway 47 daily through the proposed four-lane highway.

In the case of rail connectivity, he said the authorities were intentionally avoiding the most feasible and practical Ernakulam Railway garage alignment and had opted for an alignment, which would affect hundreds of families in Vaduthala and Mulavukad villages.

He said the District Collector who promised to complete the land acquisition for rail-connectivity had even failed to publish the list of families who would be affected by the project. He alleged that the Collector had created a false impression and had misled the State government on the issue. “Besides, the clearance of the MoE had not been obtained for the rail connectivity. The authorities are simply stating that such a clearance is not needed for rail connectivity, which is wrong,” he said. The lawyer representing the prospective evictees in the court said the district administration had suppressed a feasibility study report regarding the project. The report clearly stated that the developer of the project should be directed to set apart adequate funds for rehabilitation and resettlement. He said a rehabilitation supervisory panel under the National Rehabilitation Policy entrusted with hearing the objections of the people regarding the rehabilitation package was not yet formed.

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