Thiruvananthapuram: The ongoing spat between Administrative Reforms Commission chairman V. S. Achuthanandan and power minister M. M. Mani over Munnar encroachments took a new turn on Thursday with the veteran threatening to register a strong protest if government failed to remove encroachments including that of the TATA. Achuthanandan was responding to Mani’s allegation that he had failed to act against TATA. “Mani has got it totally wrong. It would be fitting to remove the encroachments of TATA and demolish all unauthorised structures. In case if illegal structures and encroachments are not removed, I will lodge a strong protest,” he told reporters here.
Earlier, Achuthanandan welcomed Mani's statement regarding recovery of land encroached by TATA company in Munnar. He urged the LDF government to take steps for recovering the encroached land without any further delay. He said of the total land that is to be recovered, steps should be taken to preserve the ecologically sensitive and environmentally fragile areas. While assigning the remaining land, first priority should be given to plantation workers. The second priority should be to distribute land among landless families, he added.
Achuthanandan asked the government to constitute Special Task Force comprising revenue and police officials to carry out the entire operations related to recovery of TATA land and its distribution among plantation workers and landless families. The veteran leader’s statement came soon after power minister Mani accused Achuthanandan of making them organise many agitations on the issue and later conveniently ignoring the TATA land.
Earlier, Mr Mani accused VS of unreasonably targeting CPM MLA S. Rajendran. He said Mr Achuthanandan had failed to show him the consideration extended by former chief minister Oommen Chandy. “When Oommen Chandy visited this place as chief minister, the local Congressmen showed him Rajendran’s house and described it as massive encroachment by the local MLA. But after looking at the house, he stood aghast for a moment and then he left the place immediately,” Mr Mani recalled. He said Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala also visited the area recently and made certain unwarranted statements about the issue.
