Even as the government is yet to take a final decision on its land acquisition policy, as many as 322 employees in the 16 offices that were set up in June 2009 to acquire land for the widening of national highways passing through the State are sitting idle since December 2009, pondering over their future.
These offices, each headed by a special tahsildar, at Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Thrissur districts were set up as per G.O. No. 210/09 for land acquisition prior to the widening of NH from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod.
In Alappuzha, there were two offices, one each at Harippad and Cherthala, which along with other offices further south, had the task of acquiring land for the widening of the NH stretch from Thuravur to Kaliyikkavila.
According to Kerala Land Revenue Staff Association State president P.S. Rajeev, these officials completed the initial procedures within five months and the preliminary notification was issued in December 2009.
The government then had to issue orders and the second notification before further demarcation of the acquired land as per ownership titles so as to enable payment of compensation. This was to be done within one year, which was the validity period of the preliminary notification.
However, with confusion over the required width for the highway, elections and other arguments cropping up, the entire process got delayed and the validity of the preliminary notification expired in December 2010.
The 322 employees, meanwhile, have been sitting more or less idle, and if the Association is to be believed, they were not being paid their salaries on time either. It was only by June 30 this year that most of them got their salary arrears. But with the government yet to decide on the future of these offices, they are now worried whether they will continue getting their salaries in time for the Onam festival.
This was not all. According to Mr. Rajeev, the expiry of the notification has two meanings. One, the entire effort and the money spent for it, which included Rs.65 lakh a month for salaries alone, has gone in vain and secondly, the process will have to be repeated from scratch if the government decides to go ahead with the widening.
This, he says, will include convincing once again those who had initially agreed to hand over their land. “The United Democratic Front government has offered hope in the form of a proposed package for those from whom land is acquired. But the package should ideally include land for them at another site so that they are not left on the streets with the compensation money that might not fetch them new homes, given the current prices in the realty market,” Mr. Rajeev says.
The process has to be expedited if the government did not want to lose money further, with the losses on account of the delay and expiry of the notification so far coming up to above Rs.20 crore, he adds.
