Kochi: Kerala High Court on Tuesday criticised the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) alloting 50.35 cents of government land to the Civil Officers Housing Cooperative Society formed by top bureaucrats. Justice V. Chitambaresh stayed the decision for three months.
“It was surprising as to how the GCDA could barter away 50.35 cents of land situated in the heart of the city to a society without inviting tender. Such largesse when the ordinary man is facing acute shortage of residential/commercial accommodation in the city cannot be appreciated at all,” the court observed.
The GCDA decided to sell the land to the society considering the application filed by inspector general M.R. Ajith Kumar, president of the society. The court issued the order on a petition filed by Milton Thomas Kuruppath, managing director, SMEC Automation (P) Ltd, seeking to quash the order.
The court issued notices to the state government, GCDA, Cochin Corporation, COHCS and the Ernakulam, district collector. As per the documents obtained through Right to Information, a letter from Mr Kumar was forwarded to GCDA seeking suitable land to construct a multi-storey apartment for members of the society.
Immediately, a decision was taken by the executive committee on September 10, 2015, and decided to allot the premises occupied by the petitioner. He submitted that the hasty decision was made without proper consultation.
To expedite the matter to ensure that a final decision could be made before the model code of conduct for Assembly elections came into force, the tahsildar, Kanayannur taluk, had issued a valuation certificate showing a lesser amount or Rs 18,38,732 or less than Rs 7 lakh per cent.
