THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Revenue recovery proceedings have been initiated against the South Kerala Diocese (SKD) of CSI Church for non-payment of tax dues worth Rs 41.44 lakh as they had illegally constructed 15 buildings in the sprawling LMS Church compound. The complaint was raised by Syam P Isaac in 2016 which saw the Ombudsman ordering the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation on November 1 to initiate revenue recovery against the SKD.
A former music teacher, Syam had approached the corporation in 2016 alleging that the SKD of the CSI Church had built several illegal constructions in the 20-acre compound in the heart of the city. But with the corporation authorities turning a blind eye to his complaint, Syam approached the Ombudsman. The irony is that the LMS Church is just a stone’s throw away from the corporation office.
With the Ombudsman ordering the civic authorities to initiate revenue recovery proceedings against the secretaries of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, SKD and also to the engineer in the Nanthencode ward, there was no way for the authorities but to take action. Syam told TNIE that there are 55 buildings in the LMS compound, most of them having extensions. New buildings have also been constructed in the compound. “I have been waging a lone battle against the SKD of the CSI Church since 2016.
There is a threat to my life, but I am unfazed. My grievance is that there are a couple of heritage buildings inside the LMS compound. The 150-year- old Bishop House and also a widow home set up by the erstwhile Travancore royal family in 1817 have been destroyed and new buildings for personal purposes of top officials of SKD have come up,” said Syam, grandson of Fr P Manuvel, a missionary who provided medical treatment to plague affected people in 1905.
The corporation secretary informed the Ombudsman that despite serving several notices to the SKD, they have neither regularised their illegal constructions nor taken steps to dismantle them. Stop memo too was issued by the civic authorities. On October 14, the SKD officials approached the corporation seeking 30 days’ time, and requested to avoid further action against them. But the corporation secretary in a written statement to the Ombudsman informed that the illegal constructions inside the LMS compound cannot be approved as they had not submitted the layout approval or steps taken to regularise them.