Kerala pins hopes on Central intervention

Thiruvananthapuram: Only an impleading petition by the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change at the Supreme Court, citing the principle of balance of convenience between the demolition of 370 flats-cum- attendant environment damage and the retention of flats with benefit to the environment, may avert Kerala’s first major implosion/explosion spectacle.

If the MoEF &CC does not intervene, at the behest of NDA heavyweights, the flat owners’ goose is cooked. Harsh this is because initially Union minister Prakash Javadekar had been supportive, courtesy of the stand taken by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Something happened in between and Mr Javadekar backed off, saying the Centre is not a party to a state matter.

However, the State Government braced to meet any eventuality on Wednesday evening, preparing an action plan schedule for demolition. At Maradu, the affected group of 370 families, most of majority of them single occupants, lived in mortal fear of losing their precious dwellings following the next stage of the proposed demolition.

Policemen were busy contacting aggrieved flat owners to register FIRs against builders, heeding the government direction to book builders for cheating. But differences cropped up among flat owners as many of them shied away from filing FIRs. Among owners who filed FIR was one from Alfa Serene. The hesitation in filing FIRs raised the suspicion whether some flat owners had business dealings with builders.

A clutch of systemic flaws has contributed to the plight of assorted families in the four apartment complexes comprising five buildings built in breach of Coastal Zone Regulations III, according to a former chief secretary, who preferred anonymity.   

Builders’ arrogance emboldened by a stay-oriented litigation regimen, shifting Coastal Zone Regulations, flourishing politician-official nexus and a technocratic approach by judges towards habitat-environment are behind the Maradu environment blemish. It’s an unmitigated tragedy for the majority of the flat owners, who had shelled out Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.25 crore in staggered instalments to buy waterfront flats near the central business district of Kochi.   

Builders treated with scant regard stop memos issued by local bodies and other diktats of the local self-government department, hauling up such agencies before the High Court from which they could secure stay and go ahead with the constructions. They only needed to humour officials and politicians. The most telling case is that of DLF apartments at Chilavannoor, situated on prohibited zones, but got away with a fine of Rs 1 crore.

Kerala government had done much to save the day for the apartment owners. It convened an all-party consensus two weeks back pledging all support to the flat owners. But that assurance evaporated the time the Government decided to order suspension of all utilities, sensing the SC mood. No less a person than Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had assured flat owners that “the Government would do everything possible to help them”.  

Yet another possibility that might aid in a non-destructive resolution of the Marads crisis is top court having a look at the pending curative petition, which is yet to be registered. It is another pertinent point that the CRZ III spots, where the apartment complex stands, has since been lowered to CRZ –II zone, where such flats are legally permissible. This has, according to one section, rendered the litigation infructuous.