People faced with eviction owing to the Karamana-Kalayikkavila National Highway widening on Sunday termed the rehabilitation proposal mooted by the State Government a sham and announced their decision to oppose it.
This was declared at a convention organised by the ‘Bhoomi Parpida Samrakshana Samithi,’ a forum representing the affected families, at Pappanamcode. The samithi has decided to write a letter listing the people’s demands to the government as reply to a government notification on the proposed land acquisition.
According to the samithi leaders, no one was against the widening of the NH, but the rehabilitation package announced by the government was fraught with myriad problems. It does not have Cabinet approval, for one, they alleged.
Besides, the government’s promise of three cents of land will be made available only to people who have an annual income below ` 75,000 and who will lose both their house and land to land acquisition. This is unfair, the samithi leaders said. In reality, only about two per cent of the total number of people who will be affected fall under this category.
According to the samithi leaders, the government should scrap the plans for widening the road by 30.2 metres and fix the width at 22 metres instead. The potential evictees have also demanded ` 30 lakh per cent of land.
This, according to them, is only fair since land prices would shoot up in the area once the project is completed. The convention also reiterated that the compensation should be paid before the land acquisition and the evictees should be rehabilitated in the same locality.
Francis Kalathingal, general secretary of the Moolampilly coordination committee, which spearheaded the public outcry against the unjust evictions in Moolampilly, Ernakulam, inaugurated the convention. Kalathingal emphatically urged the potential evictees here to press for compensation before agreeing to the land acquisition.
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