IDUKKI: In a shocking report of the Revenue Department, it has been found commercial construction activities in Munnar area were at their pinnacle for nearly seven years, violating various rules and even the High Court order.
The preliminary list by the Revenue officers, a copy of which is with the Express, submitted at the meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday revealed a total of 330 commercial buildings, including multi-storeyed resorts, home stays and other commercial buildings, were constructed without the consent of the Revenue Department in Munnar.
According to the order of a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court in January 21, 2010, comprising the then Chief Justice S R Bannurmath and Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan, no construction should be allowed in Munnar without obtaining a no-objection certificate (NoC) from the Revenue Department and without the permission of the panchayat concerned, except in cases governed by the court orders.
Later, in 2016, the then District Collector A Kowsigan interpreted Munnar area as eight villages which comes under the jurisdiction of Munnar Special Tribunal, constituted in 2010 to look into land-related issues post-Munnar demolition drive in 2007.
The Revenue officers prepared the report on the basis of this interpretation. According to Revenue Department sources, all these constructions were done after the court order.
“While some constructions were done blatantly violating the court order without obtaining NoC, some others secured NoC for residential buildings and turned it for commercial purposes,” said a Revenue Department officer.
The report stated construction activities were at their zenith in Pallivasal village, where 126 commercial buildings were erected over seven years, followed by Chinnakkanal (77 buildings) and Bison Valley (57). The report said stop memo was issued to as many as 80 buildings and constructions were stopped. Revenue officers point fingers at grama panchayat authorities who issued building permits for these buildings without having the NoC of the Revenue Department.
These constructions include smallscale buildings to huge highrises having a built-up area of 1.28 lakh sqft which are mostly in Chithirapuram area in Pallivasal village.
While the plinth areas of three buildings cross one lakh sqft, as many as 14 buildings have more than 50,000 sqft area and having five to 13 floors. Investors are from various areas - from Secunderabad to Kochi, Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram.
Apart from court order violation, the investors also violated various rules, including the Kerala Land Assignment Rules, 1964, Land Assignment Special Rules 1993, and Cardamom Rules 1961, which warrants strict action from the authorities, including demolition of the buildings.
Interestingly, while UDF leaders claim no encroachments and illegal constructions had taken place during their stint, Express found many building permits were issued during the UDF regime in 2011-16.
Parliamentary committee to visit Munnar on Tuesday
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The parliamentary committee on Environment will visit Munnar on Tuesday. The committee headed by Renuka Choudhari will visit Munnar in the wake of reports of large scale encroachments in the ecologically fragile land under alleged political patronage.