The Munnar operations launched in 2007 to dismantle illegal constructions and retrieve government land from encroachers had to be called off midway despite the lofty ambitions and humungous mass support.
The LDF leaders saw it as a reckless agenda pursued by then chief minister V.S. Achuthananadan. The head of the special task force K. Suresh Kumar recalls what went wrong. Excerpts from an interview:
What was the provocation behind Left cabinet deciding to launch Munnar operation?
By March 2007, mass-scale encroachment in and around Munnar was already causing a huge embarrassment to the then LDF government. Several environmental NGOs had filed PILs in the High Court pointing out adverse effects on the environment inviting scathing comments and adverse orders from the judiciary. By April 2007 media reports from Munnar started alleging that CPI workers were collecting huge amounts (in the guise of contributions to the Janayugam Fund) from illegal resorts in return for protection from eviction. In early May, then revenue minister K. P. Rajendran, accompanied by forest minister Benoy Viswam, visited Munnar and transferred the Idukki district collector -- and a few village officers -- and announced the setting up of yet another committee to 'look into' the encroachments. But the media was sceptical - they alleged the existence of a powerful land mafia and a nexus involving politicians and corrupt officials from almost every government department.
Finally, chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan himself was forced to visit Munnar in early May and announce that "…there will be strict action against the encroachers…and not just committee reports…"
This was the context in which the cabinet took the unprecedented decision to 'appoint a special officer to coordinate the activities of various government departments for evicting all encroachments and for removing all unauthorized structures in and around Munnar, within three months'.
What were the highlights of the operation?
It was an impossible task- evicting more than 4000 encroachments over just three months.
Over a period of twenty nine days, 92 unauthorised buildings -almost all of them illegal resorts and hotels- were razed to the ground and 16,000 acres of encroached government land recovered.
Why was the operation called off midway?
It was pretty obvious that politicians from almost all political parties were hands-in-gloves with the land mafia. The CPI was dead against the drive, even before it was launched, for obvious reasons. The revenue department (under the CPI) started depriving the eviction drive of resources - funds and manpower.
Obviously bowing to pressure from the CPI, in a desperate attempt to save their party office (which was, in fact, nothing but a 5-storied hotel building), Mr Achuthanandan issued a dubious government order 'exempting all temples, churches and party offices' from the eviction drive. When the absurd illegality of this decision was pointed out to him, the order was withdrawn but the damage was irrecoverable - the eviction drive had lost its legal credibility.
The moment nearly 75 acres of encroached land was recovered from Lambodaran (brother of the present power minister M.M. Mani) and criminal cases registered against him (some say Lambodaran went into hiding and even left the country for a short period), Mr Mani publicly threatened "to cut off my hands and feet".
The pressure on VS must have been tremendous. In the last week of May 2007, VS called me and advised me to 'go slow on evictions in the town area'. "The local functionaries of both the CPI and the CPM are dead against eviction in the town area," he told me.
I shifted operations focusing on the illegal resorts constructed on cardamom land on the outskirts of Munnar town. This went on for a week before VS again called me, this time to inform that "the CPI had come to some kind of understanding with the cardamom cultivators". In other words, I was being asked NOT to evict any more encroachments either 'inside Munnar' or 'around Munnar'. I drove down to Thiruvananthpuram to inform VS I was quitting.
Was there a tactical error in razing the buildings and structures ? Some owners also got favourable verdict from courts.
The Cabinet asked me to remove all illegal structures. If you have an illegal building on a forest land or cardamom land, this is actually rain forest which is given to assignee to preserve. They are not even allowed to cut the branches of trees. I found that instead of trees they were growing resorts in cardamom land. There was not even a single tree in the 25 acres resort in Pallivasal area.
In the notice served by the then collector, only 1935 rules were mentioned where as the provisions of 1964 rules should also have been included. Because of the small technical error, two orders were issued by the court in their favour. That was challenged in the Supreme Court by VS and the state government.
I am still alive, I am not in jail. I have not paid a single rupee as compensation. That means whatever was done was totally legal.
What do you think are current challenges facing the high ranges?
The need to protect the Western Ghats has been highlighted in numerous scientific reports. We disposed of the Gadgil Committee report in a casual, contemptuous and united manner. So, no, I do NOT believe the politicians in Idukki nor our government for that matter, have the guts to confront these criminals head on.
