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Takeover Tata Tea's 1,000 acres: Alphons Kannanthanam

Kannanthanam wants to repossess land leased to company for tourism township.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Union minister of state for tourism Alphons Kannanthanam has dusted off a plan that had gone into oblivion after the V S Achuthanandan government bowed out in 2011. Mr Kannanthanam has called for the takeover of 1000 acres of land from Tata Tea Company in Munnar. He wants the resumed land to be converted into a township that would cater to the requirements of all kinds of travelers, from the backpackers to the uber-rich. “The Centre is ready to give money to the state government if it can employ top consultants to prepare a tourism master plan for Munnar,” Mr Kannamthanam said at a press conference here on Monday.

The office of tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran said that Kannanthanam had spoken about Tata Tea land with the minister a week ago. “But it was said in a very off-hand manner to be taken seriously,” a top aide of Mr Surendran said.
In 2010, the then LDF government had plans to take over 1073 acres from Tata Tea Company for V S Achuthanandan’s pet ‘New Munnar’ project. Then, the plan was hatched to bring in all major activities, right from business to farming, within the 'special zone' where the state government had exclusive control. Then, and now, the revenue land in possession of the state government is not more than 30 acres.

Originally Kanan Devan Hills, which in its entirety was 1.25 lakh acres, was given on lease to Englishman John Daniel Manroe by the Poonjar king in 1877. Later, the Travancore King, whose vassal the Poonjar king was, ratified the lease. More than two decades after Independence, the entire 1.25 lakh acres of land that formed KDH Village was taken over using the Kannan Devan Hills (Resumption of Lands) Act, 1971. In 1974, a Land Board award returned 57,359.14 acres of the resumed land on lease to KDH Company, the predecessor of Tata Tea. However, the ownership of the land was vested with the State Government, and is still considered forest.

The remaining 72,000-odd acres were handed over to the Forest Department. Nearly 50,000 acres of this is now Eravikulam National Park. But the remaining, nearly 20,000 acres supposedly in the possession of the Forest Department, has not been surveyed and demarcated. These lands are scattered in 15 or more patches within the 29 Tata Tea estates. (It was one of these patches, some 1250 acres at Niyamakkad, that V S Achuthanandan had annexed with great fanfare in 2008. Tata Tea company’s response that the plot was actually forest land was technically correct. Fact was, the company had been enjoying possession of the land though it was legally resumed.)

It was in 1977 that KDH Company was purchased by Tata Tea Company. The former UDF government had filed an affidavit in the High Court questioning the purchase, stating that it was a violation of FERA and Stamp Act. A case related to the sale of patches of land in their possession to private parties for the setting up of resorts since the early eighties is still pending in the courts. Incidentally, it was the then sub-collector Alphons Kannanthanam who had issued notices against the sale of land by Tata Tea Company.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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