THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A high-level meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday decided to collect tax from 113 ‘kuthaka pattam’ land holders in Idukki, except from one case being considered by the High Court.
Those who paid tax until December 2016 will benefit from this. The excluded case is of a land holder who runs a resort in a property.
New application for title deeds will be accepted from July 1.
The Chief Minister said the government will explore the possibility of establishing a Munnar tribunal and a special officer to speed up processing of title deed applications. The tribunal, if implemented, and the special officer will wrest the majority of powers from the district administration with regard to land assignment.
Another proposal discussed in the meeting was to establish the Munnar township which will also help legalise small-scale encroachments. Pinarayi expressed concern over the delay on the part of Revenue officials in implementing the decisions of the previous all-party meeting. The CPM leaders alleged Devikulam Sub-collector Sriram Venkitaraman is acting against the government’s directives.
In Munnar and all other places in the state, the Chief Minister said, the government will protect the interests of people who encroached upon small pieces of land for housing. But large-scale encroachments will be evicted.
Pinarayi read out a representation by the LDF district unit which raised concern over the alleged lapses on the part of the district administration.
He asked the Revenue officials to implement the decisions taken by the previous meeting and those on Saturday without further delay.
Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan boycotted the meeting owing to the party’s stand that the meeting is to help encroachments. It was attended by Power Minister M M Mani, S Rajendran MLA, Idukki District Collector G R Gokul and Sub-collector Sriram Venkitaraman.