KOCHI: With the Angamaly-Erumeli Sabari Rail project delayed, landowners whose properties have been earmarked for acquisition find themselves in a tough situation.
With no other options left before them after the revenue department set aside the file on the setting up of land acquisition offices, the representatives of the families, under the aegis of the Sabari Railway Landowners Association, met with Chief Minister V D Satheesan at his residence at Aluva on Sunday, seeking to accelerate the process.
“We submitted a memorandum demanding that the state government demarcate the land that has been earmarked for acquisition for the project and install survey stones. We also urged him to release the compensation for the properties thus demarcated,” said the association members.
The association requested the chief minister to take a decision quickly on the file on opening land acquisition offices in Perumbavoor and Pala. “It has been 28 years since the project was first launched, and our properties were earmarked. We want the state government to acquire land for the project and appoint more officials in the land acquisition offices in Muvattupuzha and Thodupuzha,” said the members.
The association said, “We cannot sell or mortgage our land to meet our financial needs for our children’s education, marriage or medical emergencies. All the houses on the land earmarked for the project are dilapidated, since the owners do not want to carry out maintenance works, spending huge sums of money, as the property has been earmarked for the project. Even the High Court has ruled that the project should not be delayed further.”
According to them, the chief minister said that a meeting of people’s representatives and officials will be convened within a month to discuss and decide on the future course of action on the project. The landowners met Satheesan amidst the recent reports of the revenue minister setting aside the Angamaly-Sabari rail project land acquisition offices file.
