THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The vigilance department on Saturday launched a statewide inspection, ‘Operation Adhigrahan’ to investigate allegations of corruption and irregularities in land acquisition and disbursement of rehabilitation funds linked to highway development projects.
The raids began at 10m and were carried out at 32 offices across 12 districts, including the deputy collector and special tahsildar offices involved in land acquisition.
The operation follows confidential inputs received by vigilance indicating that some officials facilitated misuse of public funds by falsifying records and allowed ineligible claims under the Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) scheme.
Under the R&R scheme, people whose properties are acquired for highway development are entitled to additional financial assistance beyond the compensation amount. A total of Rs 2,86,000 will be granted for those who lose their homes and Rs 75,000 for those who lose commercial establishments. The funds are meant to support temporary accommodation or help rebuild displaced lives.
However, complaints have come out that certain tahsildars approved funds without verifying whether owners actually resided in the houses at the time of acquisition or whether the properties were rented. In some cases, field verification officers are suspected of deliberately submitting false reports.
Further allegations point to landowners colluding with officials to reclassify land categories from lower to higher value slabs to claim inflated compensation amounts.
The inspections, focused on identifying such procedural lapses and financial misconduct, were carried out under the directive of vigilance director Yogesh Gupta.
District-wise, the highest number of inspections were conducted in Thiruvananthapuram (6) and Kollam (5), followed by Ernakulam (4) and other districts such as Alappuzha, Kozhikode, Kannur, and Kasaragod.