THODUPUZHA: Following a recent court intervention, there happened a construction ban across the state starting from Munnar. The Land Assignment Act amendment bill passed in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday was simply a dire attempt from the government to surpass the court-induced hurdle.

It all started in 2010 when an environmental organization approached the High Court demanding a halt to the encroachment of revenue land and illegal constructions in Munnar. The court then ordered that the revenue department's no-objection certificate(NOC) should also be required when applying for construction permission in Munnar.

However, in the report submitted by the revenue department to the court, Anavilasam village, located 100 km from Munnar, and Shantampara village, located 40 km away were included in the list of eight villages in the Munnar region. This doubled the burden for the people of these two villages who had to do the arduous journey to revenue offices a number of times to get permission for construction from Panchayat.

One organization ( Athijeevana Poratta Vedhi) meanwhile approached the High Court citing bias in assigning NOC mandatory for only selected villages in the Munnar region. The court sought an explanation from the government in this regard. Then on August 22, 2019, the Revenue Department issued an order imposing construction restrictions in the entire Idukki district as per the Land Regulations ACT.

The same organization again approached the court and this time, the Land Use Act of 1964 was made applicable to the entire state by the High Court in one crucial order. HC several times enquired about the government's reluctance to amend the land assignment ACT but the government paid no heed and approached SC to move against the HC order.

With the Supreme Court upholding the High Court order, the government was left with no option but to amend the Land Assignment Act.