A breather for Kadakampally landowners

Collector promises steps to make land-tax payment possible

The landowners of 45.4 acres of land at Kadakampally, who had been denied permission to remit tax for the past two years, can make payment on April 25 provided there is no order restricting collection of land tax from them by the government or the High Court.

District Collector Biju Prabhakar told The Hindu that he met landowners from the area on Saturday and promised to take necessary steps so as to make way for them to remit land tax. Inquiries would be made with the government and the Additional Advocate General whether there was any order against accepting tax for 45.4 acres of land.

Notification soon

“If there is no order issued by the government or the High Court against accepting tax and if the landowners have proper documents they can make payment on April 25.

A notification in this regard will be issued in two days’ time,” he said.

The landowners, who are all victims of a land scam which is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, were asked to provide receipts of tax paid during previous years for verification. The receipts should be submitted to the village office at Anayara before April 22 and claims made after that would not be entertained.

The District Collectorate would constitute a special revenue team to conduct a re-survey of the 45.4 acres to update its records, Mr. Prabhakar said.

Protests

For the past few months, landowners, numbering around 200, were at loggerheads with the government after they were denied permission to remit tax, saying that there were other title deed holders for the same property. On Wednesday, they even staged a protest near the village office after they made an attempt to remit tax.

Besides the Collector, M.A Wahid and V. Sivankutty, MLAs, and former Speaker M. Vijayakumar attended the meeting.