The battle for land between the state government and Tata Tea touched new heights on Tuesday with Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan himself symbolically  recovering government land allegedly in possession of the latter in Munnar.
 Mr Achuthanandan drove down to Nainacaud on the Munnar-Marayur road on a rainy morning leading a team of government officials including members of the special task force.
Mr Achuthanandan  had symbolically uprooted the nameboard of the Gundumalai estate of Tata Tea and erected the government’s insignia in its place.
Government officials later claimed that 1,300 acres of land had been recovered.
“The Tatas are behaving as if they are running a parallel government. But we are determined to recover all the land that they are illegally keeping in their possession,’’ the chief minister said.
Tata not for dispute
Tata Tea claimed that it had no intention of disputing the government’s action as the land did not belong to it.
“It belongs to forest department and what was removed was just a board indicating the location of the estate. That being the fact, the intention of some politicians and other vested interests to undertake the exercise at this juncture is suspect,’’ Tata Tea special advisor T Damu said.
A spokesperson of Kannan Devan Plantations, which now owns the Tata Tea estates, expressed surprise at the government’s action.
The spokesperson said the hearing in the case against the land recovery is slated to come up in the high court on Wednesday.
However, Mr Achuthanandan is determined.
“If they go ahead with their litigation, we will even think of recovering the entire land leased out to them,’’ the chief minister said.
Mr Achuthanandan, who had led a campaign against the Tatas,  while in Opposition had alleged that Tata Tea had illegally occupied over 50,000 acres of land.
CM’s act a gimmick
Opposition leader Oommen Chandy said the chief minister’s exercise was a gimmick.
 “We will support all the government’s genuine efforts to recover revenue or forest land. But, if the intention is to attract the court’s intervention then we are not going to support it,’’ he said.