THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and BJP State president Kummanam Rajasekharan are headed for the volatile Munnar hills, trying to rev up yet another campaign against encroachments, some of them involving big land sharks. The latest allegation is that the entire high ranges of Idukki district have suffered massive denudation since the big bang anti-encroachment operation in 2006 during the Achuthanandan ministry and vast acres have been annexed by bigwigs of the ruling front.
CPM leader S Rajendran, MLA, representing Devikulam, found it hard to defend himself on TV channels on Saturday but his argument was that such sporadic discussions and campaigns on Munnar encroachments would not reach anywhere and that the priority should be to regularize whatever is licit and take into account proper development and investments already initiated there. CPI district secretary K K Sivaraman said it was high time the real encroachers were exposed. Revenue Minister K Chandrasekharan said the Revenue Department would ensure illegal occupants are evicted and alienation checked.
Senior Revenue officials point out that the Department's focus on speeding up the distribution of title-deeds on the remaining 12,000 hectares, granted by the Supreme Court in 1997 for a total 24,000 ha in Idukki, might get deflected. There are approximately two lakh families in the State without title-deeds and all of them do not fall within high-range areas. There are many caught up land tribunal "pattayam" and such families still hold some 13,000 ha in districts other than Idukki.
The Revenue Department is in the process of preparing a road map on urgent steps to be taken for title distribution. The fear is efforts to bring relief to families waiting for title-deeds might be caught up in the crossfire of anti-encroachment ops in Munnar. Officials were also equally concerned about the fast-deteriorating ecology of Munnar, accentuated by reckless encroachment on Revenue/Forest land and rapacious investments, involving concrete monstrosities.
