Kerala Chief Minister Achuthanandan on Tuesday arrived here with a team that took back 1,300 acres of excess land from Tata Tea in this hill town famous for tourist resorts, though a company official said the land did not belong to it at all.
The move comes after the Tata group firm got a two-week’s stay from the Kerala High Court on Thursday on the recovery of excess land.
Mr Achuthanandan who arrived here on Tuesday morning told reporters: “If the Tatas try to go to court or to stop our effort in recovering the excess land, we will even consider taking back all the leased land which they have in their possession.”
“We have done what previous governments have failed to do. The message is to all that they should own only land which is rightfully theirs and not encroach upon land they do not own,” Mr Achuthanandan said before launching the operation.
He then ordered the officials accompanying him to remove the signboard of Tata Tea at the plot of land, and replaced it with another of the state government.
However, T. Damu, a consultant to the Tatas, told IANS that the recovered land did not belong to Tata Tea at all.
“This land belongs to the forest department. We had only placed our signboard pointing to our estate that adjoins the forest department’s land. We were not supposed to put that board there and it has been removed,” said Mr Damu.
The land owned by the tea company has a curious history, starting in 1877 when JD Munroe, a British national, bought the picturesque hill town of Munnar from the erstwhile royal family of Poonjar in a permanent and perpetual grant.
In 1895 it was bought over by a British company, James Finlay & Co, which owned it till 1977 when the Kerala government took over the land under the Land Reforms Act and the Kannan Devan Hills Resumption Land Act.
After keeping 70,522 acres, the government gave the remaining 57,359.14 acres to Tata Finlay Ltd, which was acquired by Tata Tea in 1983.
However, the Kannan Devan Hills Resumption Land Act stipulates an upper limit of 50,000 acres for private land holding. The recovery of the extra landholding was a matter of debate for long.
Mr Achuthanandan’s move to recover the excess land from Tata Tea is part of his campaign against land encroachments in Munnar.
More than 10,000 acres of land has been recovered under the campaign that started last month.
Leader of Opposition Oommen Chandy welcomed the move. “There is already a stay from the court against recovering the land from the Tatas. Then there is a court order of 1974 against this and an aerial survey of Tata's property is underway. Still, if Achuthanandan’s intention is right, we will fully support him,” said Mr Chandy.