Thiruvananthapuram: After the Centre asked the LDF government to stop the land acquisition needed for the expansion of the National Highway 66 (NH-66), Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac has pinned the blame on BJP state president Sreedharan Pillai for ‘sabotaging’ the project.
"The National Highways Authority of India is just ensuring that the project does not get completed in the LDF government's tenure. This is a vengeful act by the Modi government. People should boycott BJP leader Sreedharan Pillai for standing in the way of Kerala’s development," the minister said in a Facebook post.
"Soon after the floods, Sreedharan Pillai had written to the Centre seeking to put an end to the land acquisition in Ernakulam. He had even sent a letter to Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari," Isaac added.
“In the letter dated September 14, 2018, Pillai had said he was sending the letter as per the demands of People’s Action Council (Samyuktha Samara Samithi). He had mentioned about the acquisition of Edappally-Moothakunnam areas in the letter. He had sought to stall the land acquisition for a while,” claimed Isaac in the post along with a copy of the said letter.
Centre's intervention
The Centre has asked to stop the land acquisition in all districts except Kasaragod. No work in the project can be carried for at least two years as the highway expansion in these areas have now been moved to the high priority list II.
Only regions in Kasaragod district – Thalapady-Chengala and Chengala-Neeleswaram stretches – are part of the high priority list I. The Centre will now provide Rs 1,600 crore only for carrying out works in these areas in this financial year.
The NH-66 comprises the old NH-17, NH-47 and the area south to the Edappally.
The Centre's intervention comes even as the state was trying to complete the project, which had been stalled for years, by the year 2021.
Around 80 per cent of land acquisition has been completed in the northern districts and 60 per cent in the southern districts. A total of 1,111hectare areas are being acquired.
If the acquisition gets delayed by two years, the land price would rise further. Earlier the Centre had shown reluctance to release funds claiming that the prices were too high.
CM Pinarayi rings up Gadkari
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has spoken to the Union minister Gadkari, asking him to let the state continue with land acquisition. Gadkari reportedly assured the CM that he will consider the state’s request.
PWD Minister G Sudhakaran too had shot off a letter to the Gadkari, seeking to recall the order.
Earlier Gadkari had said that the Centre was ready to give Rs 25,000 crore for highway expansion if the land acquisition procedures were completed.
Pillai's reply to Isaac
Meanwhile, Sreedharan Pillai dismissed the allegations raised by the finance minister. He said that he requested only to stop the recovery procedures temporarily as requested by flood-affected people in the area.
“The state government issued a notice to recover land on August 28 within days of the flood. My politics is to be with the common people. People including CPM workers were among them. Of them, land of 1,000 families had been taken over in 1972 and they received only quarter of the amount and no road has been constructed in that area,” he said in a press conference in Kozikode on Monday.