A People’s Action Council, under the aegis of the Thiruvaranmula Paithruka Grama Karma Samiti (TPGKS), blocked the ‘illegal conversion’ of a paddy field at Vennikkulam in Puramattom grama panchayat on Monday.
The village officer and a police party from Koipram police station took the earth-mover and two tipper lorries into custody on the directions of Thiruvalla Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) A. Gopakumar and Deputy Superintendent of Police in Pathanamthitta B. Chandrashekharan.
TPGKS workers led by K.S. Satheeshkumar, samiti taluk unit general convener, P.V. Sajikumar and C. Jayan, conveners, led a march to the paddy field under conversion near the Vennikkulam KSEB office in the forenoon. They alleged that the village office employees and the Koipram police had initially ignored their plea to act against the land conversion at Vennikkulam.
The leaders said they had alerted the RDO and DySP who, in turn, had directed the village officer and the sub-inspector at Koipram police station to initiate action. The samiti leaders alleged that the land mafia had converted more than an acre of paddy land under the cover of permission given for levelling 10 cents of plain land. The RDO told The Hindu that a case has been registered in connection with the land conversion, under the Kerala Paddy Land and Wetland Conservation Act.
RDO, Dy.SP lauded
The samiti leaders lauded the RDO and Dy.SP for the prompt action they had taken on the complaint. They said the samiti would continue to keep vigil and campaign against conversion of paddy fields and wetlands across the district.
TPGKS has constituted taluk-level committees and panchayat-level units in the four taluks of Thiruvalla, Mallappally, Kozhencherry, and Ranni. Units were being constituted in the remaining parts of the district, said P.R. Shaji, samiti convener.
