ALAPPUZHA: Following the complaints of encroachment, Haripad municipality has decided to conduct a joint survey of the land where construction of a multiplex, Vrindavan Garden, near Madhava Junction downtown is underway. M.J. Antony, better known as Antony Perumbavoor, the production partner of Mohanlal, got the building permit from municipality earlier this year. But Haripad village officer sent a report to the taluk office doubting encroachment. J. Muhammad Shafi, the municipal secretary, said he had asked for a joint survey by tahsildar, village officer and municipal engineer and pre-survey works were going on.
"We had got a complaint via telephone, and we made a field visit. We realised that the width of Pillathodu had shrunken. The survey will confirm if the compound wall of the site is built on poramboku subdivision,” he told DC. The 1.5-km long Pillathodu is the oldest water body in town which originates from eastern nada of Subhamanya Swamy Temple. It passes through Karthikapally, Pallipad and Haripad villages. The encroachment came to the notice at a time when people are striving hard to revive the dying stream. A single-page report of the VO on April 25, which DC accessed through RTI, suggests an urgent survey.
The report says: “As per the revenue records the width of the poramboku canal at least 100 metres close to National Highway is 8 metre. Presently east and west end of land has shrunken to 6.9 metre. The northern end under the 286/1 survey number had had a width of 8.9 metres. It’s identified that western part of the same subdivision in the 281/16 survey number there is large scale construction activities taking place. So there is urgent need of a survey to know whether poramboke was encroached.”
The village officer who refused to be named said the survey got delayed due to the shortage of surveyors. ‘Municipal secretary is the custodian of the particular land. So municipality is obliged to get it done," he said. Meanwhile, S. Vijayan, Tahasildar, Karthikapally, said that a complaint of citizen forum on encroachment at Pillathodu had been received. "I had forwarded the complaint to the VO. A fee has to be remitted along with a request by the municipality to get the service of surveyors," he said.
