Amid blame game, housing project for SC members fails to take off

Corporation says GCDA did not hand over land for which it had paid

Eleven years on, a housing project for the landless among the Scheduled Caste community members in Kochi Corporation area remains a non-starter despite the civic body paying for the land.

As the project got stuck for more than a decade, the Corporation and the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA), which, according to the civic body, was supposed to hand over the holding to it, are engaged in a blame game. While the Corporation blamed the GCDA for not handing over the land for which it had paid, the GCDA authorities said the transaction got stuck due to lapses on the part of the civic authorities.

It was during the 2007-08 People’s Plan campaign that the civic body formulated the housing project. It had also identified a 1.45-acre holding owned by the GCDA at Mundamveli for the project.

The civic body had plans to procure another 75 cents for rehabilitating the families residing on the puramboke holding on the banks of the Chilavannoor lake.

As the GCDA had agreed to part with the holding at half the value of the land fixed by the Ernakulam District Collector, the civic body had made an initial deposit of ₹30 lakh with the GCDA, according to the documents available with the Corporation.

Later, the GCDA came up with the argument that the land value fixed by the Collector was too low and it had to be revised. On his part, the District Collector revised the land value and the civic body paid an additional amount of ₹87 lakh to the GCDA in 2010, the civic administration contended.

Thus the Corporation ended up paying ₹4.66 crore to the GCDA, which accounted for 93% of the land value. However, even after remitting the money and repeated reminders, the GCDA was not willing to transfer and register the property.

The Corporation finance standing committee recently cleared a proposal to remit an additional ₹17.32 lakh, the balance to be paid to the GCDA against the land value. A note that was presented in the Corporation Council recently suggested initiating legal proceedings against the GCDA if the agency failed to register the holding and transfer the property to the civic body.

Responding to the developments, Deputy Mayor T.J. Vinod said the GCDA was obstructing the transfer of the holding despite making the payments. The civic body hopes to settle the issue and get the holding through negotiations. A meeting would be convened with the GCDA authorities to discuss the issue, he said.

GCDA chairman V. Salim blamed the Corporation authorities for the hiccups. It was the stand adopted by the civic authorities that stalled the project, he said.