Chief secretary Jiji Thomson to negotiate with land owners for Vizhinjam
The chief secretary-led panel had rejected the price fixed at Rs 7.5 lakh per cent
Thiruvananthapuram: The board of directors of the Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited on Thursday decided to entrust chief secretary Jiji Thomson with the task of negotiating with 19 fishing families who would lose their land.
The board also decided to rename the empowered committee on the project, also headed by the chief secretary, as its implementation committee.
Principal secretary (revenue) Vishwas Mehta and district collector Biju Prabhakar are the other members of the panel.
Port minister K. Babu told the meeting that the government was also implementing a Rs 128-crore rehabilitation package.
He said a total of 30.62 acres of land remained to be taken over for the project. The chief secretary-led panel had rejected the price fixed at Rs 7.5 lakh per cent.
Though the district collector had held talks with the owners earlier on, the remaining land to be taken over remained inconclusive with landowners opposing the move to reduce the fixed price.
The meeting also decided to sign the agreement between Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and the government for constructing the port slated to be held on August 17 at the Secretariat Durbar Hall.
As part of the package, over 250 clam-collectors and 75-odd shore seine (kambavala) fishermen will be permanently rehabilitated and over 2,000 fish workers will be temporarily rehabilitated during the construction period.