Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Panel to look into encroachments

Photo: S.Mahinsha

Campaign mode: A protest by Kerala Water Authority employees in the city against encroachments over pipelines. -

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Cabinet sub-committee set up to deal with encroachments on the pipeline road of the Kerala Water Authority from Peroorkada to Vellayambalam has decided to form a committee headed by the District Collector to recommend ways to ensure the safety of the pipeline and deal with the identified encroachments.

This was decided at a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee here on Wednesday where a survey report prepared by revenue officials was discussed threadbare. The new committee will have as its members the managing director of the KWA, survey director, corporation secretary and the law secretary. The committee is expected to submit its report in a week.

On the Vellayamabalam- Kowdiar stretch, the survey team identified 19 encroachments. This includes a wall of Christ Nagar School, that of a mosque and a temple, the report reads.

Further, porches of some houses, parts of the walls of some houses and six houses in their entirety will have to be removed. According to revenue records, the ‘puramboke’ land on this stretch is seen to be as much as four to five metres wide.

On the Salvation Army- Narmada complex stretch, the revenue team identified 16 encroachments. This includes one house and a portion of the office of the executive engineer of the KWA, the report reads.

On the Salvation Army- Kowdiar stretch, there is no mention of a ‘pipeline puramboke’ area in survey records of previous years or in the re-survey records of the Sasthamangalam village. However, after the KWA showed the survey team the location of the pipeline, the latter has determined that the area falls under survey numbers 184, 185, 186 and 187.

The pipeline passes beneath properties for which land tax has been paid by one Abdul Rasheed, K.G. Abraham, Murukan, Geetha Murukan, Peninsular Plantations and the Water Authority Engineers’ Association. At other places, the pipeline passes through an area that is four to five metres wide.

The revenue sketches of this area show that the line passes through six properties for which there are title deeds. If this width is allowed inside the abovementioned properties it is seen that the house of Mr. Rasheed and the Water authority engineers’ building and walls of the property said to be owned by K.G. Abraham will be partially affected, the report reads.

Only if the government goes in for land acquisition can 10-metre width be ensured for a pipeline road in these areas.

Such a move will partially / totally affect 75 houses. If only the encroachments at a distance of four to five metres from the line are removed, this many number of houses will not be affected, the report concludes.

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