Rajamanikyam, the Special Officer appointed by the Government for assessing the land in the possession of Harrisons Malayalam Limited (HML), inspected the company’s estates at Kumbazha, Konni and Laha on Saturday.
Mr. Rajamanikyam, who is also the Survey Director and Inspector-General of Registration, said his mission on Saturday was a preliminary
inspection. He said the company management would be served with a notice seeking various supporting documents of the land in its possession at Kumbazha, Laha and Konni Estates in the district as the next step.
The Special Officer said resumption of the government land, if any, in the possession of HML would be carried out after verifying the
document followed by a satellite survey, he said.
The inspection team comprised senior officials attached to the departments of Forests, Survey, Revenue, and Police.
Mr. Rajamanikyam said the team was verifying the documents of the land in the possession of HML, as per the land registration No. 1600/23, in Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, and Idukki districts. He said the team had completed its visit to the HML estates in Kollam and Pathanamthitta by Saturday and would visit the estates in Kottayam and Idukki in the coming days.
The government had constituted the special team headed by Mr. Rajamanikyam following a Kerala High Court on February 28 to take over all the unauthorised landholdings, if any, of HML in the State.
HML had claimed that its total landholdings across the State (in eight districts) was only 60,000 acres against the allegation that it had more than one lakh acres in its possession.
Survey Department sources told The Hindu that the land would be surveyed using modern satellite survey system once the special team completed its inspections.
