Amidst stiff resistance and threat from a group of people, government officials removed an illegal construction, measuring about 12,000 square feet, in the Western Ghats beyond Maekkarai in Achchanputhur town panchayat on Monday.
Though the officials, including G. Shashank Sai, Tenkasi Assistant Superintendent of Police, and S. Shaik Mohideen, Revenue Divisional Officer (in-charge), Tenkasi, were prevented by a group of people from carrying out the operation for a while, the officials started the work at 11.30 a.m. and completed it at 4.30 p.m.
The illegal construction made inside the Western Ghats in violation of the Tamil Nadu Hill Areas (Preservation of Trees) Act, 1955 by an individual from Thanjavur was brought to light first by a group of agriculturists during the farmers’ grievance meet held at the Collectorate in February. The agriculturists alleged that the promoter, who was building a holiday resort, had diverted watercourse to create waterfalls in some other area.
When they showed some photographs to support their claim that the illegal construction had been carried out on a mutt’s land inside the forest without permission, Collector M. Karunakaran asked his subordinates to survey the construction site and submit a report.
However, the process got delayed and the issue was forgotten after the Assembly election notification.
The issue resurfaced at the farmers’ grievance day meeting at the Collectorate in June.
Then, a visibly agitated Collector ordered the officials to submit the survey report within a week, and his instruction was translated into action even before the deadline.
Subsequently, the Collector ordered that the promoter should remove the construction within a week, failing which the officials would remove it.
“When we deployed seven earthmovers for removing the illegal construction on Monday morning as the promoter failed to remove it, around 35 persons, posing as advocates, prevented us from moving towards the structure. Besides threatening us of dire consequences if we moved ahead, they threatened the drivers of the earthmovers and snatched their keys,” said Mahin Abubucker, Assistant Director (Town Panchayat).
The officials, with additional police protection, deployed around 50 workers with crowbars to demolish the structure. The protesting group allowed the officials to carry out the operation expecting an interim stay from court around 11.30 a.m. As their hope was dashed, the officials started demolishing the structure using earthmovers.
