Second land reforms row to help real estate mafia: VS

Thiruvananthapuram, August 27: Taking on the rival faction in the state unit of the party, CPI(M) Politburo member and Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Wednesday said the controversy over the second land reforms was meant to help the thriving real estate mafia in the state.

Indicating he had not budged an inch from his professed political stand, Achuthanandan said he would take on the land mafia, and, if needed, a new legislation would be introduced to reign in the “real estate menace”.

Addressing the media after a Cabinet meeting, Achuthanandan did not hesitate to give a direct reply to Pinarayi Vijayan, who had said the second land reforms were meant to prompt agricultural labourers to take on small-scale farmers. Vijayan had said such a drive would create tension between workers and farmers.

Achuthanandan retorted that while evicting encroachers out of Government land, not a single small-scale farmer was harassed. “Look at Munnar eviction. Around 11,000 acres of land was wrested back from 15 or 16 land sharks, not from small farmers,” he said.

The bid to create an impression that land reforms had outlived their purpose was meant to help the land sharks. Many landless people were yet to get benefits of land reforms. The land wrested back from illegally-occupied estates would be distributed among the landless in three months.

He said the previous UDF Government had identified that Tata had been illegally possessing 50,000 acres of land. “After the Left Government assumed the office, we had already taken back 1,200 acres of land from Tata Besides, 11,500 acres of land had been wrested from encroachers across the state. These land tracts would be distributed among the landless,” he added.

Achuthanandan’s open war against the real estate mafia was also meant to irritate the rival faction, which had landed in several murky land dealings. While the Vijayan faction wanted the state Government to send the SEZ applications to the Centre for its approval, Achuthanandan wanted a close look at the genuine interest of the applicants. He said many of the applicants were real estate dealers.