Kerala government keeps word, Samkutty gets mutation certificate

Thiruvananthapuram: Samkutty who became a symbol of bureaucratic victimisation and resorted to violence to get a mutation certificate for 18 cents he inherited finally got it, thanks to the intervention of Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan.

“The revenue officials tried to conceal the records even after the minister intervened,” Mr Samkutty told DC after he received the certificate on Wednesday. “They reported that the documents had gone missing.”

Mr Samkutty who scared the officials at Vellarada village office on April 28 this year by setting fire to it is now out on bail in the case. He had told the police that he took to the violent step after his frequenting to the office for the last three years for getting the mutation certificate proved futile.

“The documents resurfaced in the Neyyatinkara Taluk office the day when the vigilance raided the office,” he pointed out. “The officials would have concealed the documents if the vigilance had not stepped in.”

The officials, however, claimed that the details of his land were erroneously entered in another survey number.

Samkutty received the property from his father through a transfer deed and had been remitting property tax till 1991. However, on resurvey, his land was marked as government property, making it impossible for him to pay tax. His petitioning to then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at his mass contact programme also did not help him.

The issues relating to his property had rocked the state just before the assembly elections. The LDF had promised to take steps to find out the records of the property.

After the elections, Mr Chandrasekharan had asked his officials to trace the records of his land on a war footing, Mr Samkutty said.