Anti-encroachment drive will continue in Idukki: District collector

Idukki: The district collector Sheeba George has made it clear that the special task force (STF) set up for the second Munnar eviction drive operates under her supervision will continue.

The eviction drive began by evicting an encroachment of 5.5 acres of cardamom and pepper plantations on the catchment area of Anayirangal Dam at Singukandam in Chinnakanal on Thursday morning continues despite the strong opposition from district CPM.

Soon after the 5.5 acres of land illegally held in Singukandam by Adimaly native Tiju Kuriakose were evicted by the STF members, who accompanied by hordes of policemen reached the area by 6 am on Thursday, CPM district secretary C V Varghese and Udumabanchola MLA M M Mani had come out in open against the drive.

“The eviction in Chinnakanal is not part of the Munnar eviction drive. We spoke to the collector regarding the eviction and she told us that there wouldn’t be any further eviction,” C V Varghese said.

However, collector Sheeba George said that she does not know about the statement made by Mr. Varghese. “The eviction drive will continue and STF will go about their work to evict other encroachments in the coming days,” she added.

Udumbanchola land records (LR) Tahsildar Seema Joseph who was in charge of the drive in Chinnakanal, said that the individual who had grabbed the land on the catchment area of the dam was issued notice to leave the area by revenue officials in 2020. "He then filed a revision request with the sub-collector and district collector. As he did not have any documents to prove his ownership of the land, his request was rejected, and that has led to the revenue department taking over the land. A house built on the encroached land set up for the farm workers to reside has been sealed. All the spices produced on the recovered land will be harvested and auctioned,” she added.

It is learnt from revenue officials that there are a total of 336 encroachments on the list for eviction prepared by the revenue officials. The village with the largest number of encroachments is Chinnakanal. Most of the resorts in the list of encroachments have moved the court to prevent being evicted. Land and any properties without any legal implications will be evicted from the drive,” they added.

During the 28-day-long drive in 2007, as many as 92 buildings were demolished and several thousands of acres of land in the Munnar region of Idukki were taken back from encroachers. Revenue officials here said that except for a few pieces of land, which were given back to the owners as per the court orders, all the regained land in the first Munnar eviction drive rests with the government.

This time around the state government has decided not to demolish any building on the land to be evicted, and the drive will be a low-key affair unlike the first 'Munnar mission' that got media attention across the country.