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| Cabinet to decide on land grabs |
| A road under construction at the Cardamom Hill Reserves, near Munnar.
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| INDIA
, 7-May-2007
1:19:46 AM |
| The `gold rush' at Munnar is coming to a halt. The Government is set to initiate stringent action against the encroachers following completion of the inquiry by Principal Secretary (Revenue) Nivedita P. Haran.
The suspension of revenue officials and filing of criminal charges against encroachers have already begun. The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday may be deciding on further steps for demolishing the encroachments and for resumption of the encroached lands.
It is estimated that Munnar and its surrounding areas including Chinnakanal and Pallivasal villages have about 3,600 resorts. At least half of them are in the Cardamom Hill Reserves or in revenue `poramboke' land.
Role of officials
In a large number of cases, officials have assigned them to people in an irregular manner. The other cases are outright encroachments though they also claim to have titles.
The process of large-scale encroachments started more than 15 years ago. Some village officers and tahsildars have connived with encroachers to issue the holders title deeds under their official signature and seals.
(In some cases, the officials themselves took the lead to `grant' the pattayas for a consideration. In one case, the titles issued by a tahsildar operating from a lodge in 1993 are known as Vrindavan pattayas after the name of the lodge. There are also titles known after the names of the officials concerned.)
Records destructed
This as well as the destruction of original revenue records make it difficult to differentiate actual titleholders from encroachers. However, visitors can see that many of the resorts are inside the Cardamom Hill Reserves or on brook or road porambokes.
As cardamom reserves are leased government land intended only for the cultivation of cardamom, the Government can cancel the titles and resume the land.
In the case of poramboke land, the matter may be a little trickier as fraud in assignment of the land may have to be established.
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