THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (K-Rail) claims that the state government has the right to go ahead with land acquisition for SilverLine, activists opposing the project have come forward contesting the same. Contrary to the K-Rail’s statement, the state government has made it clear that land acquisition can be done only after final clearance from the Centre, said M T Thomas who has been fighting a legal case against the semi high-speed rail project.
The revenue department order issued last August had created a special deputy collector’s office based in Ernakulam and 11 special tahsildar LA offices in different districts. “The government order to proceed with land acquisition as per sub-section (2) of Section (8) of The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, will be issued only after getting final approval for the project from the Railway Board,” says the revenue department order.
“K-Rail is trying to mislead the people. A circular from DEA (department of economic affairs) clearly states that clearance from the Central cabinet committee is required for the project. If it is a project costing up to Rs 100 crore, they could have gone ahead with land acquisition under pre-investment activities. However, since the SilverLine project cost is to the tune of Rs 63,000 crore, they cannot go ahead with land acquisition. In addition, the High Court has clearly stated that they should not go ahead with the same,” Thomas said.
Two days ago, in response to the Railway Board affidavit submitted in the High Court that no approval was given for SilverLine, K-Rail reiterated that the project has got an in-principle nod. As per the office memorandum issued by the Union finance ministry in 2016, there are a slew of pre-investment activities that can be done prior to a major project. These include preparation of feasibility reports, DPRs, pilot experiments, surveys and investigations, K-Rail said in a press release on Thursday.
“Based on this, the state government has the right to acquire land and conduct a social impact assessment. Therefore, the government can lay boundary stones along the alignment,” the corporation said. It further added that land acquisition proceedings being a matter that comes under the state government’s jurisdiction, no special clearance is needed from the Union government or Railway Board.