KOZHIKODE: The traders near Kallayi River forcibly stopped revenue officials and River protection committee members on Monday who tried to fix border stones on encroached land. The team was led by District Collector U.V. Jose and also the City Corporation Mayor Thottathil Raveendran. According to the traders, a court stay order had been granted to stop the legal formalities of the revenue department on the identified encroached land here.
It was after revenue department officials found out that some traders were trying to construct buildings on the title deed lands, that they decided to lay border stones following the directions of District Collector U.V. Jose. River protection committee members had to indulge in a verbal battle with the traders for stopping revenue officials from carrying out their work.
“Even though the traders could stop us citing the stay order from the court, we will soon take legal support and carry out the procedure of taking back all the encroached land”, said the District Collector.
The survey by the revenue department has identified that the encroachment of Kallayi river is massive, especially over a large area of puramboke land that was encroached in areas of Nagaram and Kasaba", he pointed out.
A total of such 4.5 acres of encroached land alone has been identified from these two villages here and in addition to this, 1.5 acres of land very close to the river has also been identified. More than 30 buildings that are constructed on encroached land have so far been identified. The Collector added that no encroachment on Kallayi river would be tolerated anymore. Action would be taken soon on the people behind this, he said.
