Idukki: The district administration recovered 2.2 acres of encroached land near Cement Palam in Chinnakanal on Saturday morning as part of the anti-encroachment drive under the revenue department. A team of revenue officials led by Idukki Sub-Collector Arun S Nair and Udumbanchola Land Records (LR) Tehsildar Seema Joseph cleared the land illegally possessed by Leela of Chinnapparakudi in Adimali and her husband Jose Joseph. The duo had converted the encroached land into farmland.

The Special Task Force (STF) members who are conducting the eviction drive also placed a board of the Kerala government on the retrieved land.

“The government land which is a part of the catchment area of Anayirangal Dam was illegally possessed by the couple. They also built a house on the encroached land. We have issued notice to them asking to vacate the property within 30 days,” Seema Joseph told Onmanorama.

As many as 47 acres of government land in the catchment area of the dam was found encroached, out of which all the land without legal implications will be recovered.

“Those lands upon which a lawsuit is going on with regard to possession or ownership could not be evicted. It is the same with the people who claim the land and have filed a revision application with the sub-collector and collector after all their appeals have been rejected by the concerned courts,” added the Tehsildar.

Leela and her husband said that they had bought the land in 1978 and had been filing several applications for title deeds since then. However, the revenue officials said that Jose owns land in Adimaly and clarified that as the encroached land in Chinnakanal is under KSEB, the couple would not get a title deed.

The anti-encroachment drive, which is the second of its kind since the first drive in 2007 during the V S Achuthanadan government, had begun in Idukki as per the direction of the High Court. The court has issued orders to clear the encroachments in the district mainly in the Munnar region after an environmental organisation moved a petition.

The drive started during the daybreak on October 19 by clearing 5.5 acres of land in Singukandam. Adimaly native Tiju Kuriakose had encroached on this land. The drive is in progress under two special task forces –one led by the sub-collector in Udumbanchola Taluk and the other headed by the cardamom assistant commissioner in Devikulam Taluk.