THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Union environment ministry has decided to intervene in the Neelakurinji sanctuary issue. This was stated by BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan who held talks with union environment minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan in New Delhi on Saturday. The centre will convene a high- level meeting of forest, wildlife and environment ministries to discuss the LDF government's decision to reduce the boundaries of the sanctuary, he said. The state BJP is obviously hoping to cash in on the controversy. Earlier this month, Devikulam sub-collector V.R. Prem Kumar had cancelled the title deeds of 20 acres of land in possession of Idukki MP Joyce George and his relatives at five places in Kottakambur, Idukki.
The MP maintained that he had submitted the tax documents as demanded by the RDO till March 2017 and that the order was passed without hearing him. The development has embarrassed the LDF government and chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan as he had absolved Mr George of any wrongdoing. Mr Kummanam demanded a CBI probe into the land dealings related to the Neelakurinji sanctuary.
"The decision to redraw the boundary of the sanctuary is against law," he said. "According to section 26 of Wildlife Protection Act 1972, the state government doesn't have the authority to redraw the boundary of a national sanctuary. It can be done only with the permission of the Central Wildlife Board as the Kurinji sanctuary was declared as a national sanctuary in 2006 itself," he said.
"There is an attempt to sabotage the authority of the appointed settlement officer. It is illegal to overrule his orders. If there were any original owners of the land, they would've come to the settlement officer long ago, but none has approached him yet. This is a conspiracy to allot the land to the people close to the chief minister," he said and alleged that he may have links to the land mafia. He also pointed out that district collector G. R. Gokul doesn't hold any documents to prove that this land is fit for agriculture. The land mafia, including politicians, were trying to grab acres of land there by forging documents holding that they had given the land to SC/ST for farming, he said.
