Idukki: Will not withdraw from my fight even if government takes over 50 acres of land, Muvattupuzha MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan said on Wednesday. He was responding to the Collector's order to take over 50 cents adjacent to his resort in Chinnakanal at Suryanelli on Wednesday.

The Congress legislator took a few media personnel to his Chinnakanal resort on Wednesday morning and showed them the entire area. Following this, he gave a point-by-point rebuttal to the allegations listed by the Vigilance and Revenue Department in their respective reports.

Land area
“You have seen the entire area surrounding my resort. I have not intruded into even an inch of land other than the area mentioned in the land documents when I bought the property,” Kuzhalnadan said. The Land Revenue Tehsildar at Udumbanchola had filed a report to the district collector stating that Kuzhalnadan encroached on 50 cents of public land to construct a resort at Chinnakkanal.

Compound wall
Kuzhalnadan also dismissed the Vigilance claims that he encroached on government land and built a compound wall. "The property does not have a compound wall and is a tourism facility on an open landscape.  I have however, constructed protection walls to reinforce the slope and prevent the plot from collapsing," he said.

“There is a huge protection wall in the property made of granite rocks which existed when I bought the property. This is to prevent the landslide on the slope. As the rocks started coming apart, it put all three buildings there in danger. So, I have reinforced half the portion of the protection wall with concrete and maybe the officials considered this a wall I constructed,” Kuzhalnadan added.

MLA added that he was unsure on what basis the officials prepared such a report. "On steep landscapes, there could be additional land if just the length and breadth of the property are calculated for the total area. To get the exact area, the carpet area needs to be calculated,” he said.

Kuzhalnadan said that the reports against him would not prevent him from pursuing all the issues he had raised in the public domain. “I am not going to move legally against the vigilance and revenue reports. There are formal procedures,” he added.

The Idukki District Collector on Wednesday gave permission to Kerala government to take over 50 cents of Poramboke land adjacent to Kuzhalnadan's resort in Chinnakanal at Suryanelli. Poramboke means unassessed lands which are the property of the government.

Vigilance initiated a probe against Kuzhalnadan after CPM Ernakulam district secretary CN Mohanan lodged a complaint alleging tax evasion and financial irregularities in the purchase of the land.

Kuzhalnadan and two of his friends bought Kapitan Bungalow in Suryanelli three years ago. The purchase included a land of one acre and 14 cents, and buildings within the property. The property includes one building of 4,000 square feet and two buildings of 850 square feet. The two buildings were registered on February 2022.