The move to sideline the Department of Revenue by introducing a new mode to acquire 1,226.45 hectares of land for SilverLine, the semi high speed rail (SHSR) corridor from Kochuveli to Kasaragod, has drawn flak from the Communist Party of India (CPI).
The Revenue Department, handled by the CPI, has expressed reservation over the proposal to do away with the time-consuming conventional route and instead go for partial outsourcing of the land acquisition process to save time.
Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan is already upset over the Public Works Department’s (PWD) move to hand over the remaining land acquired for NH development for creating wayside amenities. Incidentally, both the NH development and SilverLine projects are handled by Minister for Public Works G. Sudhakaran.
The Revenue Department will not permit outsourcing of the land acquisition proceedings as mooted to expedite the SilverLine project.
The issue over land acquisition came up when the Administrative Department approached for sanction to set up acquisition cells in 10 districts. A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in February had decided to issue notification for acquiring land for 10 stations for the third and fourth railway lines that will traverse through 11 districts, except Alappuzha, Idukki and Wayanad.
For creating the acquisition cells under District Collectors, 143 posts had to be created and this was ruled out by the Finance Department due to financial crunch and citing that the acquisition proceedings are of temporary nature.
Official sources said the partial outsourcing mode was adopted while acquiring land for Kochi Metro and NH six-laning. This is done by posting two to three key persons such as Deputy Collector, Tahsildar and Surveyor from the Revenue Department in the acquisition cells under the District Collector. The remaining works are handled by the outsourced agency. This was mooted for the Silverline project to save time before the Railways gave its final nod, sources said.
The move for land acquisition comes in the wake of an in-principle approval given by the Centre for the project to be jointly executed by the State government and the Ministry of Railways on cost-sharing basis. The Railways have agreed to make available unused land of 200 acres in its possession in the corridors where the SHSR runs parallel to the existing line.
It is learnt that the Revenue Department will play the waiting game till the Centre gives its nod and then refer the matter to the Chief Minister.
