Lake Palace Resort row: Alappuzha district collector T V Anupama seeks KSREC report
ALAPPUZHA: Alappuzha district collector T.V. Anupama has sought the report of the Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre (KSREC) to proceed against the controversial Lake Palace resort which is facing charges of encroachment of government land. Ms Anupama is understood to have sent a detailed enquiry report to additional chief secretary (revenue) P.H. Kurian on Saturday citing violations in constructions in the Karuveli paddy field and of the Valiyakulam-Zero Jetty road diverting the water channel.
Section 13 of the Kerala Paddy and Wetland Conservation Act, 2008, allows the collector to prosecute violators but she needed the report to specify its extent for initiating punitive steps that should stand the test of law. Sources indicated that it might take two to three weeks for the collector to get the report, which could come in handy for her to invoke sub-section 4 that empowers the district to order restoration of the land to its previous nature. The district collector prepared the report after conducting a survey and hearing Water World Tourism Company, the resort's promoters, as per the Act.
The report details the systematic conversions that took place since 2003 but confusion prevails on the exact extent of encroachment that took place before and after 2008. The collector, in a five-page interim report to the revenue minister E. Chandrasekharan September 27, had said 4.5-metre to 12.5-metre land was levelled violating the Act. The encroachments proved with the help of satellite images were done after 2014. The promoters rejected accusations saying they had all permits with them for occupying the land.
