Kanchipuram revenue officers try to seize train

Kanchipuram: The Kanchipuram revenue officers on Friday attempted to seize a train following a sub-court order allowing them to do as the railways were yet to pay compensation to land acquired in 1999.

The Kancheepuram sub court on November 23 issued an order to seize an engine of the railways and the cars which the Kanchipuram district collector and the District Revenue Officer use to travel.

Acting on the order, staff of the Kancheepuram sub-court, accompanied by policemen, reached the station ahead of the arrival of the Puducherry-Egmore-Tirupati train on Friday morning at 8:20 am. They then approached the engine driver and showing him the judgment, ordered him to get off.

Arguments broke out between the court team, the complainants and the station manager who asked the officials to leave as the engine was a central government property. The station master then flagged the train off at around 8:40 am, after a 15-minute delay. the court team chased the train but gave up.

Taj Shah, one of the landowners, alleged that the Railway Board had not given them even a single rupee though they had surrendered their land 19 years ago in 1999. The Kanchipuram sub-court had passed an order in 2017, directing the railways to pay compensation of Rs 1.30 crore to four persons whose 1.5 acres of land was acquired for laying railway lines in 1999.

“We four had jointly given 1.5-acre land to the railways. Initially, they assured to give Rs 25 per square feet. However, they failed to honour their word and in 2007, we moved the court seeking enhanced compensation, ”Shah said. The court had increased the compensation from Rs 25 to Rs 88 per square feet after two landowners- Mumtaz Begum and Taj Shah had filed a case.

The team then rushed to the Kanchipuram district office so that they could seize the cars, but that too was in vain as both the officers were unavailable.The revenue officers who were part of the team promised that they would return on Saturday or Monday to ensure the seizure. Both the Kancheepuram station manager and the police accompanying the court staff refused to comment on the matter.