Munnar: Seven encroachers given 15-day deadline

KOTTAYAM: Seven bigwigs have been given a 15-day deadline to vacate the encroached land in Munnar, Revenue Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said on Saturday.They have been intimated that their names would be made public if they failed to acknowledge the warning, he said. Asked why the government is reluctant to divulge their names, the Ministerdid not give a clear answer. These seven are among the 11 persons who had encroached upon the government land in the area. Three days ago, notices were issued to these seven law-breakers to stop illegal construction and move out, the minister said, and added that the encroached area, was of high market value.According to him, the government is going ahead with the plan to wrest control over the land after plugging all legal loopholes.The work towards protecting the 2009-acre land which was taken back from the encroachers is progressing as well, he said.A surveillance system has been installed at Parvathimalai to prevent re-encroachment. The Minister said that the government is planning to carry out digital mapping of the revenue land which will make it easy to identify the genuine owners.He said that the 30-member ‘land protection sena’ formed to guard the reclaimed land would start functioning by the end of this month.The expenses towards maintaining the sena will be funded by the ‘Bhoomi Keralam’ project. The government was facing financial fund constraint for appointing more ex-servicemen to the sena, he said.On ousting encroachers in Wagamon, he said the issue of differences between various government departments would have to be settled and action will be taken soon.The government had completed verification of 28,000 persons and work on giving pattayas in Perinjamkudi in Idukki district has been progressing.He said that the government would conduct resurvey of the government land only. The facility for helping private land owners to conduct resurvey of their land holding will be introduced, he added.