Hill highway plan in legal wrangle

Kozhikode: The High Court has stayed the hill highway procedures in Kozhikode district on a petition submitted by a section of land owners alleging that the alignment was finalised without following the guidelines of the National Highway Authority and the mandatory procedures.

The Malayora Highway Action Council  and Catholic Laymen's Association (CLA) alleged that judicial intervention has given relief to the land owners.  "The land acquisition was executed without proper land survey to identify how much land is being acquired by the government," said the CLA in a press release.

The state government is yet to grant necessary compensation for the land owners, it was pointed out.

A group of landowners had approached the High Court demanding a stay order on the procedures stating that the measures for executing the project were taken illegally.

A few leaders are spreading lies that the state government had cleared the alignment which is against the facts, the organisations said. The case is pending in the HC in which a host of officials, including chief secretary and district collector, are respondents, the release said. Misleading reports may invite further legal consequences, the release said.

However, district collector U.V. Jose and Tiruvambadi MLA George M. Thomas told Deccan Chronicle that they were not informed about the stay order.

 The people's representatives and action councils from Kayakkodi, Narippetta, Maruthonkara and Kavilumpara village panchayats were up in arms against the project earlier.  The people's representatives from the local bodies of four panchayats claimed that the new alignment ignored the four backward village panchayats.