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CRIP: another deadline lapses

Sangeetha Unnithan

Cases, paper work snarl up land acquisition

12 cases are pending in the
High Court
Transfer of government property a problem

Thiruvananthapuram: Another deadline set for land acquisition for the City Road Improvement Project (CRIP) will lapse on Sunday.

More than five years after the project was kicked off, the land acquisition is yet to be completed even on key stretches. Court cases had been the most serious impediment. Protracted paper work and such avoidable delays are the other reasons.

As many as 109 cases had been filed at the Kerala High Court since 2003. Twelve of them are pending, while seven are awaiting disposal at the government level.

“Most of the cases filed in the High Court pertain to disputes between tenants and landowners whose property is to be acquired. Other than that, there have been petitions challenging the road alignment and enhancement of compensation. There have been instances of the same individual filing five cases,” said B. Dileep Kumar, Secretary, Thiruvananthapuram Development Authority, the land acquisition agency.

While disposing of the cases, the High Court delivered some significant judgments having major implications on the disposal of cases of similar nature. These include the Saramma Itticheriyan vs State of Kerala case, which saw the full Bench discuss in detail Clause 49(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 dealing with acquisition of part of a house or building for public interest projects.

Giving its verdict on October 24, 2007, the court said landowners could opt for the demolition of the entire building, even if only a part of it needed to be brought down for acquisition. However, in that case, the owners would have to transfer the entire land on which the building stood to the land acquisition agency. The verdict led to the immediate disposal of 13 cases of tenant-owner dispute.

“This case related to the acquisition of the United Travels building for the widening of the Pulimoodu-Overbridge stretch of M.G. [Mahatma Gandhi] Road,” Mr. Dileep Kumar said.

“It bogged down land acquisition along the M.G. Road for months together. While delivering the judgment in this case, the court observed that many landowners were using the 49(1) clause of the Act as a pretext to oust the tenants. But with this judgment, the owners will now have to part with their entire land if they opted for the complete demolition of the building.”

In a case filed by a resident of Ulloor challenging the alignment of the road, the court ordered a complete resurvey of the Pattom-Medical College-Ulloor corridor.

Petitions committee

Apart from the court, a committee, headed by the Principal Secretary, Public Works, disposed of 830 acquisition-related petitions in 37 sittings since October 2003.

However, issues such as the transfer of State and Union government property still plague the project.

The delay in land acquisition had led to a setback when Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd., the private consortium executing the project, suspended work in November 2006 and threatened to pull out of the project. The contract was renewed after more than a year. The government agreed to arbitration to settle the company’s claim for compensation to offset the losses caused by the delay.

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