Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Merchiston Estate order recalled

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Conservator of Forests N. Gopinath, the custodian of ecologically fragile lands vested in government, on Tuesday recalled the order of his predecessor for denotification of Merchiston Estate areas under the Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of Ecologically Fragile Lands) Act.

Mr. Gopinath said in his order that the impugned order was made on the basis of an incompetent application. The applicant, Xavy Mano Mathew of Southern Field Ventures, did not have the ownership of the estate as its sale to Mr. Mathew by Jayasree Tea and Industries was invalid. The estate had been vested in government under the Act before the sale.

The order also noted that the parties to the sale deed had suppressed material facts in the documents. The documents said nothing of the proceedings pending before Land Tribunal regarding revenue land that belonged to the company in excess of ceiling under the Land Reforms Act. (The company had challenged the take over of excess land by the government.)

The impugned order was issued on June 12, 2007 by the then custodian V. Gopinath. The order sought revision of the original notification, issued in 2001 under the Act, to exclude the planted areas from the purview of the notification. Accordingly, only 24.73 hectares of forested areas was to be retained with the government as ecologically fragile land. The original notification covered about 286 hectares.

Following the controversy over ‘sale’ of about 33 hectares of the estate area to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) by Southern Field Ventures, the government had suspended Mr. V. Gopinath from service pending enquiry. A case challenging the government move to take possession of the estate areas will come up before the High Court on Wednesday.

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