Kerala - Alappuzha

KPCC to protest against sale of land

ALAPPUZHA: Protesting against the sale of 154 acres of surplus land by the Kuttamangalam Service Cooperative Bank in the R-Block of Kuttanad, Congress party workers led by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala will erect the party’s tri-colour flag in the block on Friday.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, District Congress Committee (DCC) president A.A. Shukoor said the land, which was assigned as surplus land to 217 landless agricultural workers in Kuttanad after the land was resumed from erstwhile landlord Murikkan following a struggle for surplus land in 1970, was taken over by the bank following the failure of the farmers to repay loans. However, the land was later sold to resort groups and other business interests surreptitiously, Mr. Shukoor alleged.

Demanding that the State government initiate a probe into the issue, Mr. Shukoor said the government’s silence over the issue, even after Leader of Opposition Oommen Chandy demanded a probe and submitted letters to Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and Minister for Revenue K.P. Rajendran in August this year, was proof of the fact that there was something fishy in the entire deal.

The cooperative bank, the DCC president said, had taken a Rs.28-lakh loan from NABARD with the help of title deeds of the 217 people as part of a kayal reclamation scheme. The bank, he alleged, had collected signatures of these people telling them the loan could be repaid by cultivation on these fields. However, the workers were not allowed to enter the fields after that, he alleged.

Documents available at the Pulinkunnu Sub Registrar office revealed that the bank had “auctioned” the land to resort groups and other private parties at throwaway prices, as low as Rs.500 a cent in some cases, even when the land here was fetching more than Rs.1 lakh in the market. The manner in which the bank had gone about the auction too was shady, he said.

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