Jisha Surya, January 24
Thiruvananthapuram: The district-level purchase committee (DLPC) meeting, convened by the district collector in October last year, to fix the price of land required for the widening of Mukkola-Karode national highway stretch has turned out to be a farce. A high-level meeting, convened by chief secretary E K Bharat Bhushan, on Wednesday decided to continue the land acquisition process by following the guidelines set by the National Highway (NH) Act, where a special deputy collector can determine the fair value of property. If land owners have any complaints, they can approach the district collector, who is the arbitrator.
Though an official decision is yet to be announced, the chief secretary told TOI that DLPC or state-level empowered committee (SLEC) will have no role in land acquisition proceedings. The chief secretary is the chairman of SLEC. “I am not in a position to say whether DLPC is valid or not. I am not even aware whether a DLPC met or not. Everything will be done as per the National Highway Act. If people are not satisfied with the fair value, they can approach collector,” he said.
Meanwhile, district collector K N Satheesh and special deputy collector J Jayachandran refused to admit that the decision on land acquisition was made at the meeting. Satheesh had even denied that a meeting was held to discuss the issue.
Land owners in the area are a dejected lot after they received a letter from the special deputy collector on Friday stating that the decision of DLPC will be forwarded to SLEC. “we received a letter dated January 17 that stated that the final decision will be taken by the SLEC. We feel entire process has been sabotaged,” said president of NH Bypass action council V Sudhakaran.
But, a senior official of NHAI was surprised by the turn of events. “After gazette notification is issued for land acquisition as per NH Act, the deputy collector can fix the fair value by considering a recent land registration in the area as base value. However, most people show lesser rate during registration so that they do not have to pay a huge amount as stamp duty. But they will demand higher amount as the fair value,” he said, adding that the process would be smooth if a DLPC can help people negotiate a fair value.
In October, DLPC had fixed the value of prime land in Kottukal, Kanjiramkulam, Thirupuram areas at Rs 5.25 lakh/cent. However, it couldn’t fix the value for Kottukal and Karode since the meeting was called off after people took out a protest demanding a hike in the value of property.
Thiruvananthapuram: The district-level purchase committee (DLPC) meeting, convened by the district collector in October last year, to fix the price of land required for the widening of Mukkola-Karode national highway stretch has turned out to be a farce. A high-level meeting, convened by chief secretary E K Bharat Bhushan, on Wednesday decided to continue the land acquisition process by following the guidelines set by the National Highway (NH) Act, where a special deputy collector can determine the fair value of property. If land owners have any complaints, they can approach the district collector, who is the arbitrator.
Though an official decision is yet to be announced, the chief secretary told TOI that DLPC or state-level empowered committee (SLEC) will have no role in land acquisition proceedings. The chief secretary is the chairman of SLEC. “I am not in a position to say whether DLPC is valid or not. I am not even aware whether a DLPC met or not. Everything will be done as per the National Highway Act. If people are not satisfied with the fair value, they can approach collector,” he said.
Meanwhile, district collector K N Satheesh and special deputy collector J Jayachandran refused to admit that the decision on land acquisition was made at the meeting. Satheesh had even denied that a meeting was held to discuss the issue.
Land owners in the area are a dejected lot after they received a letter from the special deputy collector on Friday stating that the decision of DLPC will be forwarded to SLEC. “we received a letter dated January 17 that stated that the final decision will be taken by the SLEC. We feel entire process has been sabotaged,” said president of NH Bypass action council V Sudhakaran.
But, a senior official of NHAI was surprised by the turn of events. “After gazette notification is issued for land acquisition as per NH Act, the deputy collector can fix the fair value by considering a recent land registration in the area as base value. However, most people show lesser rate during registration so that they do not have to pay a huge amount as stamp duty. But they will demand higher amount as the fair value,” he said, adding that the process would be smooth if a DLPC can help people negotiate a fair value.
In October, DLPC had fixed the value of prime land in Kottukal, Kanjiramkulam, Thirupuram areas at Rs 5.25 lakh/cent. However, it couldn’t fix the value for Kottukal and Karode since the meeting was called off after people took out a protest demanding a hike in the value of property.
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