MADURAI: Members of the Tamil Nadu Dalit Rights Protection Movement have stuck posters demanding the immediate stop of conversion and promotion of fertile paddy fields for construction of houses by local AIADMK MLA Nanjil Murugesan. They have also demanded the arrest of the local panchayat president for giving approval for the project.
John Victor Das, state treasurer of the movement, said the MLA had taken over about 100 acres of land among the lush green paddy fields in Putheri panchayat in Nagercoil for the promotion of his real estate project named 'Parasakthi Gardens'. The land had not been authorized legally by the local planning authority and the panchayat president V Marimuthu had arbitrarily granted the No-Objection Certificate and also stamped his signature on the plans for construction without consulting the authorities.
Because of these actions, the owners of another 130 acres surrounding the MLA's project were facing many hardships and were not able to cultivate their lands. The promoters of this real estate project closed four channels which brought water from the Putheri tank to these paddy fields, including the main channel that traversed alongside the main road. This main channel had been closed with concrete, according to Das.
As the promoters fenced the land in which construction was taking place, farmers of adjoining lands were finding it difficult to access their lands and the cost of labour had gone up manifold. Labourers refused to walk long distances to reach the fields. About seven large bungalows were already constructed on the occupied land.
According to Dr R S Lal Mohan, convener of the Nagercoil chapter of INTACH, information received by them under RTI had shown that Parasakthi Gardens had not been taken over by the Putheri panchayat as claimed by the promoters. He said vast wetlands of Nagercoil were being rapidly destroyed by politicians and real estate promoters, who had no concern for nature. Lands that were once occupied by tractors and ploughs are now being ruined by land movers. Such actions were ecological crimes according to Sections 430 and 431 of the IPC, where the guilty can be sentenced to jail for up to five years.
Also, the Town and Country Planning Act of 1971 amendment 47A of 2010 says conversion of wetland into housing sites should have the concurrence of the district collector and the permission of the local planning authority, which issued a notice to the MLA under section 56 and 57 of the act, but he ignored it.
He said though the local town and country planning authority had failed to stop the destruction of paddy fields, in Thiruvananthapuram, 50 km away from where this was taking place, an act strongly protected the conversion of paddy fields into housing plots.
Nagercoil was once known as 'Nanjil Nadu' for its paddy fields, but now the paddy fields that were spread over 52,000 hectares in this district in 1975 have now shrunk to a mere 16,715 hectares in 2012, putting Tamil Nadu's food security at stake, he added.
When contacted, the Kanyakumari district collector S Nagarajan said that the newspaper would have to contact the local planning authority in this regard, though he is the regional head of the local town planning authority.
Sources close to the MLA said that a cent in this garden which was very near to the Putheri railway station was priced at Rs four lakhs per cent and that water connections and EB connections would be provided on demand. The person said that all clearances had been obtained for the same. Numbers advertised for sale of plots in the same Parasakthi gardens in a Tamil Daily.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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