A decision of the left-front government in Kerala to cancel 532 illegal title deeds of assigned lands in the ecologically fragile Munnar region of Idukki district has triggered a political row within the left-front itself as the CPM's district office is also situated in land having the illegal title deed.
CPI, which is the second-largest front in the left-front, is holding the revenue portfolio and the revenue department is taking the steps to nullify the illegal land deeds. CPM district leaders including former minister M M Mani questioned the decision. But revenue minister K Rajan said that the procedures to nullify the illegal title deeds were based on a decision taken by the previous cabinet in which Mani was also a member.
It was in 1999 that then additional tahsildar of Devikulam in Idukki, Raveendran, issued the title deeds even as he was not empowered to do that. The title deeds were thereafter popularly referred to as 'Raveendran Pattayams' (Raveendran title deeds). Many resorts owned by influential people were also situated in the lands assigned under the illegal title deeds.
The revenue minister said that those genuinely eligible for the title deeds would be allowed fresh deeds. The CPM office could be also situated in the land that is eligible for title deeds. He also said that any decision to demolish the building in lands with illegal title deeds were not taken yet.
Encroachments were quite rampant in the ecologically fragile Idukki district which is part of the Western Ghats. The left-front government in Kerala led by V S Achuthanandan in 2007 initiated a drive to evict encroachers and demolish illegal constructions.
Nearly 100 buildings were demolished and over 15,000 acres of encroached land were recovered in the drive. But the drive had to be stopped in between owing to political row as party offices were also among the illegal constructions.
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