Thodupuzha: CPM, the leading ruling party in Kerala, is carrying out extensive construction activities in the Idukki district for its various offices allegedly flouting several rules.
Despite the High Court ordering an immediate stop to all construction activities of the CPM in Idukki on Tuesday, the party seems in no mood to heed and is continuing with the work.
Meanwhile, the district collector on Wednesday issued a notice based on the High Court order to all CPM offices under construction in the district.
Santhanpara
Every rule has been allegedly violated in the ongoing construction of the CPM area committee office at Santhanpara.
The rules flouted include the requirement of a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Revenue Department for all constructions in seven villages, including Santhanpara, under an order issued on June 9, 2016; another order of August 22, 2019, banning constructions in violation of land assignment rules and yet another government order issued on November 19, 2019, preventing all types of constructions on cardamom hill reserve (CHR) land.
The stop memo issued by the village officer also was violated. Subsequently, the Tahsildar (Land Revenue) submitted a report to the District Collector which included photos of the illegal construction and related documents. However, there was no action.
CPM’s building at Santhanpara is coming up on a plot measuring eight cents which is registered in the name of the party’s district secretary C V Varghese.
Piyush A Kottam, advocate for the petitioner in the case filed by an outfit named 'Athijeevana Poratta Vedi', had brought to the attention of the High Court the violation of the stop memo of the village officer by the CPM.
Following this, a special bench comprising Justices A Muhammed Mushtaq and Sophy Thomas which is considering the illegal constructions in Munnar issued an order directing the Collector and the district police chief of Idukki to strictly enforce the stop memo. The court also asked the panchayat not to issue a building number to the party office if the construction is completed.
However, ignoring the High Court order, work continued even at night.
Bisonvalley
Meanwhile, work on the CPM’s local committee office on government land (‘poramboke’) at Bisonvalley has already been completed.
The village officer found that the building on survey number 274 at the Irupathekkar area came up on Poramboke belonging to the government and sent a notice to the CPM local secretary on April 29, 2022.
However, the party went on with the construction ignoring this stop memo and completed the building. The village officer submitted a report in this regard with the tahsildar, but there has been no follow-up.
When they were contacted, local CPM leaders said that all the necessary clearances had been obtained for the building construction.
Anachal
The CPM is also going ahead with the work on a multi-storey office at Anachal in Vellathooval panchayat, where even the construction of residential buildings is banned. Even though the party’s site is very near the Kunjithanni village office, the authorities have not taken notice of the work.
Currently, the concreting of the ground floor has an area of 1200 sq feet and work on the pillars of the first floor is over.
Vellathooval is among the 13 panchayats which are included in the red zone.
Rajakumari
A multi-storey party office of the CPM has been completed also at Rajakumari.
