Image used for representational purpose only.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau unearthed serious irregularities after it conducted raids on 22 revenue divisional offices. The raids were conducted after the Vigilance got a tip-off that paddy lands and wetlands were illegally being converted with the help of corrupt government officers, including Revenue Divisional Officers (RDO), and shopping complexes were being built in many such lands.
The Vigilance said their intelligence wing had already detected 51 parcels of land where such buildings were constructed. On Wednesday’s raid it was found that in Pattazhy village in the Kollam district, a hotel was functioning on 15 cents of converted land. In Balla village in Kasaragod, 50 cents of land was converted to dry land by the RDO despite the objection of the agriculture officer.
In Olavanna panchayat in Kozhikode district, four plots included in the data bank and recently filled up were found to have been converted. In Panamaram in Wayanad, 17 cents of land was converted by the RDO. In the Palakkad office, out of 5,500 applications received for conversion, the decision was taken in 490 applications only. In the Vadakara office, no action was taken on 6,549 applications received for conversion since 2019 February.
