UDF's thumbs-up for illegal occupation

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is said that innumerable bunk shops, tea stalls and even small hotels have come up without any valid permits on little patches of ‘puramboke’ lands right outside government hospitals, public offices and courts in the hilly areas of the state.

Now, thanks to the latest amendment to the Kerala Land Assignment Rules, 1964, those who had erected these temporary structures and sustained their business, possibly bribing officials and the police, for 10 or more years can apply for a title deed for the land they had been occupying illegally.

A poor tea vendor seeking title deed for a block of land outside a government hospital is only a theoretical possibility. For a realistic picture of what the amendment can do to the state, imagine Munnar where encroachments are a way of life.

The Land Assignment Rules, when they were laid down in 1964, had allowed for the regularization of encroachments only up to 1971.

In one fell swoop, all illegal and forcible occupation of unused government lands right up to June 1, 2005, can potentially be whitewashed and assigned in the name of the encroacher. Nearly 35 years of illegal unscrupulous occupation in Munnar has been given the thumbs up.

The Tatas and the Harrisons brazening out the charges of large-scale encroachment, it seems, will be having the last laugh. The High Court had in 2010 described the rampant encroachment in Munnar as “rape of mother nature”. The Oommen Chandy dispensation has now legalized rape.

The amendment, which was issued as a notification on June 1, states that a person who had held government land even after the expiry of the lease period or an encroached land for 10 or more years as on June 1, 2015, will be assigned the land.

Each applicant can get up to four acres assigned in his name. The amendment mocks at existing acts. Under the Land Conservancy Act, for instance, the fine for encroachment can go up to Rs two lakh. But now, to get a piece of land assigned in his name, the encroacher needs to pay just Rs 200.

To know where the state government’s heart lies, the June 1 notification has to be read along with an order issued on December 24, 2013.

The order had selectively waived off an important clause in the Kerala Land Assignment Rules. It did away with the stipulation that the land assigned should not be sold or alienated for 25 years for all categories except for those who were assigned land under the Zero Landless Project; 3 cents is the maximum a family gets under the project. Intriguingly, this amendment was not tabled in the Assembly.

Activist and lawyer Harish Vasudevan said that the government decisions were a violation of the spirit of the Land Assignment Act, 1960.

“The Act was framed to distribute 50 percent of available government land to the landless,” Mr Vasudevan said. He termed the timing of the notification “dubious”.

“It has been issued at a time when there is not enough land to distribute under the Zero Landless project,” he said. As of now 2.32 lakh people have applied for 3 cents of land under the Zero landless Project.