Divya Iyer gifted' government land

Thiruvananthapuram: In a setback to the former Thiruvananthapuram Sub Collector Divya S. Iyer, the 27 cents of land that was restored by her to the private party has been found to be government land by survey superintendent.

The survey superintendent had carried out the measurement of land as per the direction of the district collector. The report will be submitted to the Collector soon.

The former Sub Collector, who was recently transferred to local self government department, was accused of arbitrarily cancelling take over of 27 cents despite the land being owned by the revenue department.

However, sources on the other side maintain that survey superintendent’s report was “half baked”. There are two questions pertaining to the land in question; one whether the survey number of the said land is correct or not and second whether the said land belongs to the government or private party. In that sense  the identity of the land needs to be first established with a correct survey number for finalising the ownership.

It may be recalled that Varkala MLA V. Joy had first alleged that Ms Iyer, through her arbitrary action, had helped a close relative of a local Congress leader.  

According to him, the disputed land had been identified by the local revenue authorities for the construction of Aiyroor police station. The legislator had alleged that Ms Iyer had not consulted with revenue authorities before cancelling the order to take over the 27 cents of land.

However, the former sub-collector had maintained that she had  taken necessary steps required of an appellate authority under the Land Conservancy Act. The officer had also pointed out that she had not restored the land to the complainant, but only cancelled the tahsildar’s order.

The decision was taken based on the evidence presented before her.  There was no conclusive evidence to show that the land in question was ‘poramboke land,” she had stated.