Faced with hardly any progress in land acquisition for the Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) housing project, the city Corporation is making yet another effort to get the State government to increase the fixed rate for land acquisition. Mayor V.K. Prashant has written a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan requesting his intervention to ensure flexibility in land rates, after the Additional Chief Secretary refused a similar request made earlier.
The local body in 2017-18 financial year had allocated ₹5.4 crore for the purpose land acquisition for the LIFE project. This year, as part of the People’s Plan, ₹14 crore has been allocated for the same. But, it has been unable to make any headway in acquiring any new land, as landowners have found the rates offered by the Corporation to be too low.
Plots acquired
The Corporation currently has in its possession only the plots in Karimadom colony, Mannammoola and Poonkulam, which were all acquired for previous housing projects.
In Karimadom colony, the Chief Minister had last month inaugurated the construction of flats under LIFE project.
“We have more than 18,000 beneficiaries in the district under the LIFE project. To accommodate all of them, we need acres of land. Right now, we are so short that not even half of them can be given houses,” said a city Corporation official.
The Mayor, in his letter to the CM, has requested permission for the Corporation to acquire land at rates close to the market rates. The Fisheries Department had in December last year issued such an order for some of its housing projects, enabling the acquisition of land at rates close to the market rates.
A similar request was earlier addressed to the Local Self-Government Department.
But, the Additional Chief Secretary, in his reply last month, refused the Corporation permission to follow the same model as the Fisheries Department.
