A well-planned eviction drive and its message

The district administration in the capital, at the behest ofthe Chief Secretary, does a clean-up in a jiffy

May 04, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:58 am IST

When the State’s Chief Secretary launches a clean-up operation that should have been undertaken by the local self-government institution concerned, the seriousness of the issue requires little reiteration. The State capital has been witnessing such an operation which began early Saturday when an army of officials, a huge contingent of the city police, and scores of men and heavy machinery descended on the East Fort area on a drive to demolish illegal constructions that have been obstructing the free flow of storm water through the Thekkinamkara canal. The operation that lasted the whole of Saturday and Sunday met with little resistance, for the man who led it and District Collector Biju Prabhakar had done some meticulous planning before they embarked on the mission.

What led to the operation was the sudden flooding of the major railway and bus terminal areas of the city at Thampanoor and East Fort a week ago during the summer showers. Following criticism about the wastage of huge sums of money for flood control in the area over the past few years, the Chief Secretary had gone on a ‘fact-finding’ mission to find out what was obstructing the free flow of water through the canal.

He had submitted a report to the Cabinet on Wednesday and secured its approval to launch a way-clearance drive, if necessary, by invoking the provisions of the Disaster Management Act. If those in the know of these developments expected matters to go through the usual governmental bottlenecks and the familiar delays, Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson and the district administration had other plans. Within two days, they put together a team, made a presentation before all those were to be involved in the ‘operation’ and got down to business on Saturday. The capital, in a sense, woke up to the clatter of earthmovers bulldozing illegal encroachments in the Pazhavangadi area, reminding many old-timers about a similar operation decades ago by the then District Collector, Sudha Pillai, for the widening of the Overbridge-Attakulangara stretch. Given the surprise element in the operation, traders who had done most of the illegal constructions did not get time to seek legal remedy. and were forced to cooperate with the officials. Administration insiders say that the operation was also meant as a message to the civic body: that the government would act firmly if it did not intervene in crucial civic issues.

When Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) Director Vinson M. Paul did some plain speaking at a public function in the State capital recently, what many heard was a narration of the state of play in the sphere of political and executive governance in the State.

The VACB Director’s main lament was that no social stigma appeared to be attached to corruption these days. Coming as it did at a time when the VACB is investigating two powerful Ministers on suspicion of corruption and probing corruption charges against several bureaucrats, his speech was seen by many to reflect the situation in the State.

Persons accused of corruption, he said, continued to hold high offices on grounds of technicality even as upright officers lived under the threat of transfer. Political propriety seems to have been given the go by, he said, making things as clear as any right-thinking official could.

Gone are the days when they went deep inside the jungles to ferret out Maoists. About 80 commandos of the Thunderbolt wing of the police, who have been stationed at Attappady for the past six months to end the reported Maoist threat, are now being used mainly to implement traffic rules on the Mannarkkad-Coimbatore Highway. Their current targets are those who drive cars without wearing seatbelts and two-wheeler riders who fail to wear helmets. They can also be seen regulating traffic at main junctions such as Agali, Goolikkadavu, Kottathara, and Anaikatty. Many persons who have driven by over the past few weeks have been shocked out of their wits on seeing heavily armed commandos in military fatigues approaching them, and asking about nothing but their licences and vehicle documents.

During the early days of their arrival, it was all action. The commandos were repeatedly seen raiding the forests and visiting tribal hamlets frequently following reports of alleged interactions between tribespeople and Maoists. But, the Home Department appears to have decided to use their services in other ways, to regulate traffic. The local community is happy at the turn of events, for it has brought smuggling of liquor from Tamil Nadu to Attappady, where an undeclared prohibition is in force since the 1990s, under check.

With inputs from

S. Anil Radhakrishnan and

G. Anand (Thiruvananthapuram), and K.A. Shaji (Palakkad)

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