The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Law to be brought for takeover of leased land

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Wednesday, Jun 25, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Law to be brought for takeover of leased land

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government is considering enactment of legislation to take over leased land holdings involved in violation of lease norms or non-payment of lease rent arrears, Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran told the Assembly on Tuesday.

Responding to a calling attention motion moved by V. Sivan Kutty (CPI(M), the Revenue Minister said the government was firm in its decision to take over all leased land being held in violation of norms or without paying rent arrears.

In most of these cases, prime land was being held in their possession by a handful of persons.

The Revenue Minister said 4,479.52 acres of land was being held on lease by 1,539 institutions and 4,476 individuals across the State.

The size of the holdings ranged from 5 cents to 250 acres and did not include land given on lease for industrial purposes or plantations.

Highest and lowest

The highest number of lease lands was in Thiruvananthapuram, where 863 institutions were in possession of 1,222.67 acres of land. The lowest number of lease holdings was in Wayanad where three individuals and two institutions were in possession of just 19 cents of land.

In 3,030 cases, the lease period had expired. Of these, 740 leases had been renewed. As many as 1,626 lease norm violations had been detected so far.

As many as 57 cases were pending disposal in courts. The government had suffered heavy losses on account of non-repayment of the lease rent arrears.

Only Rs.2.18 crore could be collected in arrears last year.

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