Thiruvananthapuram: Trouble continues to mount on Kerala transport minister Thomas Chandy as the report submitted by Alappuzha district collector confirmed the allegations of land encroachment and violation of Kerala conservation of paddy land.
The Kottayam Vigilance Court had ordered a probe into the allegations that Chandy encroached upon government land and built a road on it to a lake resort that he owns.
The report revealed that until 2012, it wasn't possible for vehicles to reach the resort by road.
Here are the key pints from the report:
By 2013, paddy land was leveled and approach road to the resort gate was built. More land apart from the old bund was levelled and converted to a new bund road. It's now been utilised as a parking area.
In 2014, according to the sketch prepared by village officer, the canal width was 2.5 meters and bund width was 1 meter. Now it's 4 to 12 meters wide.
The satellite images before and after have confirmed this. Since this area is used for parking and is protected by security and fences, it cannot be used for agricultural purposes. This is a violation of section 3 of paddy and wetland act.
The company has created an approach road and parking area for their resort which was earlier inaccessible by road. About 65.8 cents of land have been leveled.
A road, which was not there in 2003, has been widened step by step and has reached this stage.
The company claims that all these were done prior to 2008 before paddy and wetlands act came into effect.
The enquiry to reclaim this land using district collectors authority has been completed. A final order can be issued in this regarding after getting satellite data from government agencies.
By using plastic rope, buoys and iron rods the resort has separated parts of the lake. The collector has directed the inland waterways to inquire into this and see if this has to be removed.
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