17 major encroachments in Munnar belong to Congress leaders: CPM

THODUPUZHA: CPM district secretary CV Varghese said that a majority of the 17 large-scale encroachments in the Munnar region belong to Congress leaders. Nivedita P Haran, who was the revenue secretary, has referred to the encroachment of Congress leaders in the report filed in the High Court. Congress leaders PP Thangachan, Babu P Kuriakos of Adimali and AK Mani of Munnar are on the list. Many local Congress leaders are also there. All of them will be evacuated by the mission team. All the prominent leaders have encroached between 100 and 400 acres. There are 265 encroachments in Devikulam and Udumbanchola taluks alone. 185 of them are homeless. They will be given special consideration

Meanwhile, the District Collector, who is the head of the task force, will soon submit a report to the High Court regarding the evacuation proceedings in the district. The High Court has directed the District Collector to appear online on the 24th on the issue of NOC-mandated construction of buildings on patta land in eight villages of Idukki. At this time, the court will decide the steps taken in connection with the encroachment eviction. A few other cases where encroachment can be vacated after completing the process have been found in Udumbanchola taluk. The revenue team says that they will take over these also the next day with the permission of the court, avoiding legal complications. At the same time, the Chinnakanal Land Protection Committee has decided to intensify the strike if the big encroachers are excluded and only the small ones continue to be evicted.