Govt. issues orders for providing land to ISRO
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Putting an end to the row over alloting land to ISRO for setting up its space institute in Kerala,the state government on Friday issued orders assigning 120 acres of land at Ponmudi in Thiruvanathapuram district to the organisation.
As per the cabinet decision, orders were issued to handover 100 acres of land at Thennur Village and 20 acres in upper sanitarium of Ponmudi, near here.
Necessary instructions have been given to the District Collector to take urgent steps to hand over the land to ISRO after measuring the land before December 31, State Revenue Minister K P Rajendran said in a release here.
The government order had been sent to ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair and Institute Director B N Suresh,it was stated.
The ISRO land issue triggered controversy after government objected to the land sale deal for 81 acres entered into between ISRO and a private individual Xave Mano Mathew of Merchiston Estate, holding that Mathew had no right over the land as it belonged to the state under Ecologically Fragile Land Act.
Later, government offered land free of cost for ISRO for setting up permanent campus for the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.The Institute now functions in a temporary campus at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).ISRO's plan was to complete the permanent campus of the institute within 18 months, once the land was handed over to them.
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