KALADY: Several residents in Kalady share an unfortunate fate with the majority of families across the state, whose plots have been identified for acquisition for the Sabari rail project.
For over a decade, these families have been unable to modify, sell, pledge or make any financial deal with regard to their lands due to a freeze order clamped by the government as a precursor to acquisition.
However, the procedure has been getting delayed over and over again, as the state government and the railway debated over the feasibility and estimated cost of the project.
While 14 plots within Kalady have been acquired and the families compensated, more than 75 such properties lying north to Sree Sankara bridge are still awaiting the acquisition procedure to commence or roll back of the freeze order.
“Most of the families here do small businesses. Sometimes we need to obtain loan so as to get our businesses going. But, how are we going to get a loan if we can’t pledge our only collateral?” asks Paul Thomas, a local businessman in Okkal panchayat in Kalady.
He said 22 cents out of his total 74 cents has been frozen by the government for acquisition years ago. “I don’t know when I will get my compensation or get my land freed,” he lamented.
Though the railway has compensated the families from whom it has acquired the land, the evictees here complain that they have not been paid the interests on their compensation, which had been distributed several years after being sanctioned.
Sadasivan ‘Appu’, whose 16 cents of land was acquired two years ago, received close to Rs 28 lakh, at the rate of Rs 1.80 lakh per cent as compensation two years ago. But like the rest of the families, he is yet to receive eight years worth of interest.
“The survey for the acquisition was done some 15 years ago and they took this long to give us the compensation. By that rate, they might take a lifetime to give us the interest,” he said.
The rail line, which was proposed in 1996-97, aimed at linking Angamali with Sabarimala, to cater to the travel needs of Sabarimala pilgrims. The rail line would cover five municipalities namely Pala, Thodupuzha, Muvattupuzha, Kothamangalam, Perumbavoor and Angamali, and 11 other small towns.
The estimated expenditure of the project, which was Rs 550 crore then, has been increased to Rs 1,550 crore 15 years later. Even after this long, the project does not have a complete road map to finish the project in a time-bound manner.