Munnar demolition circus - who is the real culprit?
May 23rd, 2007
Regular readers of this blog would have noticed that I have not been posting anything for some time. Actually I was too busy enjoying all the live ‘demolition drive’ in Munnar that I forgot about this blog!
Jokes apart, Munnar demolition is the hottest topic in Kerala. Wherever you go, whether it is in a passenger train or in a goonda meeting (read as Kerala Vyapari association meeting) the main talk item is the Munnar circus.
Now consider this scenario: You are a decent fellow who made some money. You are looking around to buy some land. Finally you find a decent plot and after carefully checking all the documents (aadharam, village office tax receipts etc.) you buy the land. On your piece of land you decide to construct your home. After spending your entire money and even taking a loan you construct your home.
Then one day suddenly you get a notice from some “special task force”. The notice says that your land is government land and you have no rights on it. You are suddenly scared. You run with all the documents and meets the “special task force”. They tell you that all documents are fake and you are cheated by the “Tahsildars, village officers and registrars”.
Next day, a big JCB arrives in front your house and starts demolishing your house. You try legal route, but there is no time. The judge even refuses to look at your case.
Many of will say - “hey, that is the price for getting cheated”. But my dear friends, think about this. When an approval is given by a Tahsildar, you consider it as an approval from Government. Tahsildar is the Government.
The real culprit behind all encroachments happening across Kerala are “Kerala Government Employees“. Most of them will do anything for a bribe.
Now let us look at the reality. If law is strictly followed, I think atleast 50% of the houses/buildings in Kerala will have to be demolished. In Trivandrum, wherever you go you can see encroachments. In fact some of the big names in building industry have constructed multi storied buildings in Trivandrum flouting all rules. They do this by getting something called - “Special Sanction from the government”. What a beautiful way to get bribe!
Now before you conclude that I am “pro-encroacher”, let me clarify. Any violation of the law must be strictly dealt with. But government officials who aided this must be first caught and punished.
There are rumours that bribe rates in corporation offices have risen after the demolition drive. Way to go! Most of the encroachments you see in main cities like Trivandrum or Cochin are with the help of government officials. It is a shame that these people are the least affected!
PS:- Most of the demolitions are happening in land given for cardamom cultivation. The people who leased it didn’t encroach on it but they violated the lease terms by constructing permanent structures.
Update - It seems that demolition drive is now stopped since some powerful people got affected. Also check out what Business chamber of Kerala president K Retnan has to say,
“A distinction should be made between cases of wilful encroachment and instances of cheating by a well-knit nexus of responsible agencies. ‘It is desirable to adopt a lenient view and judicious approach towards the genuinely aggrieved parties coming under the latter category.”
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June 6th, 2007 at 10:28 am
“Next day, a big JCB arrives in front your house and starts demolishing your house. You try legal route, but there is no time”
This seems to be a common error. JCB is only a company manufacturing earth moving machines(Brand name). Please correct it.
June 7th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
kerala is celebrating the monsoon of demolition drive before the offset of the real monsoon.As an inmate of Munnar i don`t know whether to support or object the decisions of the LDF govenment.
Most of the blog sites and media are praising the activites of the STF, but this is not the reality……..there are lots of encroachments by possessing or acquiring fake pattayams……..there is not even a slight mention of all that.All that kind of encroachments are done by big shots and why is the STF reluctant in taking actions against the real encroachers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By now you all will think wat the hell is this stupid guy talking…….believe me the STF`S sloganeering of there actions against mastero encroachers are fake.Till now they have taken action aginst people who have used there land with orginal pattayam for the construction of buildings rather than for the cultivation of cardomom.The actions were taken against these people under the rules of cardomom hill reserve acts.
There is a big racket of mafia working in Munnar who will produce pattayam for acres of land at a stretch and these people will come out of it without even one scratch.
The explanation of the process follows….
The First step
Encroachment
The big mafia people who have got high hand in revenue department has got a clear cut idea about the revenue land location. they will start fencing these lands with the pemission from revenue people.first they will fence only ten acres…then streches it slowly to 20 then to 30 and it goes…
The second step
Bribing the officials
Here comes the detailed account of how they are calculating the bribe amount…….
FIRST THEY WILL ASK THE OFFICIAL HOW MANY MORE YEARS THE OFFICIAL HAVE FOR HIS/HER RETIREMENT.THEN MULTIPLYING HIS TOTAL SALARY AND PENSION FOR ALL THOSE YEARS WITH FIVE THE BRIBE AMOUNT IS CALCULATED.See if the officials are thrown out of there post also they wouldn`t have any problem.
The third step
The mafia will divide the 100 acres into small stretches of land ie.50cents or something and will register it in the names of the poor people who wouldn`t act against the mafia.so the government wouldn`t or can`t take action against these people because they are cherukida kudiattakkar…the mafia will provides hut for these people to live in also to reiterate the fact that they are kudiattakkar not kayattam ones.
The fourth step
these land will be given to the resort people when they come and search for lands .and you all know the cost what will it be!!!!!!!!!they people who are ignorant about these plays who are illeterate about the different kinds of pattayam gets caught and becomes scapegoats.
Here i put an end to my long talk…..i here tell if it is against the real encroacheres i support the drive.but this is fake and i don`t believe in this and i ……..
June 18th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
i very much agree to the opinions of MarI.
It is true that the STF is not demolishing buildings on encroached land but on land baught by people spending HARD EARNED MONEY.
if u look into the biased reports of the media one should understand the way of presentation.
CHR ‘pattayamulla’ sthalam kayyeri nirmicha resort polichumaatti.
Just consider the scenario: The land has patta still its called an encroachment.
we all know the stupid STF leader Suresh Kumar who proclaimed that the govt will recover Mammootty’s land because he had vanilla plants in the premises. Probably none of the plantations will exist. This denies a farmer the right to survive.What is the state if one cannot survive a cardomom fall. SUre, the activities of the govt will end up in suicides.
Is this justice? I should go by the first opinion that there is a mafia behind this. I have my own doubts whether all this buildings are being demolished to build a way for some other arab company to build a tourist spot.
The STF is surely being guided by some mafia. And look at the one sided reports of media. This strengthens my point. Have u ever seen any of the media especially India Vision showing the response of the affected??
I am SURE its NO.
Lets hope the people from Kerala will realize the true picture of the Munnar demolition and throw stones at the media for such biased reports..
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:12 pm
whatver be the politics behind the decision, i do not agree wit the coments that peopel wit hard earned money have built buiding in muunar. its high and mighty with bad money and knowing fully well that lan docuemnst are fake , lost all their ill gotten wealth in a jiffy.
when they bribed outlaws’ called revenue employees what did they think.. that they will serve the governemnt till they sport grey hairs on their teeth? tehy are just greedy people with no values.. well majority of them,,,and tehy paid teh proce.. we wanta muunnar with a peceful drive and not soemthing with a building spree around it.. if mammotty is loosing his rights because he violtaed rules so be it.. he cant be saved because he keeps saying JAy for a particular leader in te ruling party or by getting one employee suspended from party.
and the biiggest thugs are inside teh govt called CPI people,, tehy made lot of money by selling PAttas and people who bought it must pay for thei r folly.. and to call sureshkumar stupid, is acting like the goons called VYApari samithi and its president,, nas…..eeen.
hail the move and hail STF let those people made money by selling their own……. pay the price,, and if u have understood kerala and its people’s psyche u would have never made such comments…
kerala is a good place to live in but for its people..err… majority of it…
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Dear Jeegesh,
u have been seeing the reports from the media alone.
Just repeting a stetement of yours “its high and mighty with bad money and knowing fully well that lan docuemnst are fake , lost all their ill gotten wealth in a jiffy.
“…
Constructing a building does cost a lot of money… and these ‘MIGHTY’ people u r talking about have not been affected as yet..
To mention one big name it is BCG builders
All the others were people with the loans hovering over the head.
The first building the STF demolished was Summer Castle owned by a man who has a cardomom plantation which he got as his share from his family.
He pledged both his share and the ‘Summer Castle’ for a loan of 1 crore and 25 lakhs which a nationalised bank gave.
The bank will definitely not give a loan on fake documents and fake building proofs for such a huge sum.
All their papers and docs were absolutely correct and the legal notice the STF gave them was based on a condition between the Poonjar Maharaja and Sir.Munro from UK. The condition was that no construction is to be allowed within 50 yards of the river. Just look into this scenario- there is no king, the state does not accept the kingdom but the rule he made remains. What injustice is this??
Moreover the STF gave a notice on a saturday and demolished the building on sunday. The affected has no option to prove himself before the court.
You want more proofs..??? just scrap more in this page
to comprehend this matter its very simple man:
The govt has published a document inviting tenders for the re-construction of Naveena Munnar.
Kodiyeri says he’s going to construct tourism projects with this tender on the demolished land
Q 1. If it is to rebuild then why did they demolish existing buildings?
Q 2. If its ecofriendliness of the buildings- They demolished a resort named cloud 9 which was awarded 10 lakh subsidy for efficient use of land and additional 1 lakh subsidy for eco friendly construction. Did they give this for a construction on Govt Land?? Definitevely NO!
Q 3. Look into the norms of the deal and u will find that the deal is to be done on 2500 acres.Munnar town is just 93.7 acres? So they plan to demolish more land? The deal even mentions the clause by which forest land can be taken by the firm which does the construction.
Q 4. If u still think the govt and Suresh Kumar is straight forward.. look into the deal once again and u will find that the govt will only be a promoter of the project and the private firm which does that construction can sell and take money themselves.Will Munnar then not be a place only your stinking rich guys can have. The only govt project in Munnar is a KTDC where 1 cup of tea is 40 rupees and 12.5%tax.
Dont think dat what is happening in Munnar is legal. You can see the setbacks the govt is having in the courts.You will soon find how the govt will run into more and more debts repaying the affected.
Still need more proof…JUst contact me I’ll give u proof on anything unlike the claim u made in blind faith of what u heard in the news and what has been told to u.
If u have anything to oppose my statements come out with proof man…Not just blind belief.
I’m sorry if i hurt ur feelings but its inevitable…But 1 thing i agree with u is regarding the role of polititians in the game.
Please scrap Back and before u do it read what i’ve written carefully.
June 23rd, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Also Jageesh,
Just something i forgot was:
The Government is supposed to protect public property and if you are thinking this ’supposed to be encroached land’ being reclaimed by demolition is addition to public property it is DEFINITELY not.
Take the case of Summer Castle..The bank can never reclaim the loan and it becomes an NPA(Non Performing Asset) in financial terms. The NPA to a nationalised bank is a loss of Public money.
Also take the case of above mentioned cloud nine. The resort received a total subsidy of 11 lakh! Whose money??? Its public money!
Want more and more instances?? get them from me!
July 10th, 2007 at 10:25 am
i am a first visitor to this site.please stop,stop discussion on frivilous matters.Bigger,more serious matters are faced by gods own country……chikunguniya…or god only knows what afflictions our poor keralites are facing…discuss these things and forget stupid politics.saving our state from the diseases…people from the pain and agony …something must be done..research on the reasons for this endemy…
July 13th, 2007 at 12:35 am
I compleately agree with sharoon,The only effected ones seems to be the ones who have put their hard earned money,guys I am one such investor have put all my money in one such investment,with modern plans of investment i thought the booming land prices would fetch good returns by the time i would need money for my kids education..hey i am definitely not a rich person,just middle class and i pay compleate tax like all others but as everyone dreams me too have dreamt good life for my kids,and look what a scenic picture,first govt invites for investments,encourage the money flow .Govt officials Put seals ,everything genuine yet this whole drama and today i face sleepless nights thinking when one such JCB would land on my property and I am definitely not an encroacher…and bring me down to rags,interesting right ….fire seems good when our house does not burn in it,jeegesh.
July 23rd, 2007 at 5:14 pm
We have to pay the price of our actions. We elected uneducated goons as our leaders. Four years from now we will elect them out. Then five years down the line we elect them back to power. They have destroyed Munnar- they have destroyed the melshantis, they are trying to destroy guruvayur, potta, the judiciary, the press, the private colleges etc etc. Welcome to Nandigram in kerala
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
I totally agree with coemmnts made by vinodh nina and to soem extent to jegeesh.
We have let loose the so called goons called plticians with i dont care atitude..and we r payinmg the price,,and biggest culprit is teh communist parties..
unless teh maldy is rooted out of the minds in kerala..state is never going to be in the run to glory..even the congress has soem communism left in it..(nehru was,, until he found cheeni chenni betrayal…)
and to add do u think why left is opposing hyde traty..they are helping china…and that si sin their blood..
let the election coem…will see how m,any seats will b won by them
all teh bst kerala!!!
November 26th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Hello everyone
I am a Swedish journalist that will travel to Munnar next week to see the wonderful nature and sip some excellent tea, but I am also very interested in the demolition of resorts in Munnar. I would love to do a story about this for a Swedish radio show I am working with. I want to listen to the stories of the people of Munnar and am willing to hear you out about all the different truths about the “encroachments”.
I need further information about the events of this summer (the newspaper are not enough) and I would also like to interview some locals for the radio. Please contact me at gregorvega@hotmail.com if you are willing and able to help me out and get your story to Sweden.
August 30th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I was planning to purchase a small plot and construct a house on it in Munnar/ kumily / Idukki / marayur area. Now when I observed the course of the Great Demolition drive of 21st cent. I am getting scared
Can any valued reader advise how to purcahse safely .. so that I can avoid being a victim of any kind of demolition drives by adventurous Govt agencies ?
My ID is : d_nambudiri@yahoo.com