

KOCHI: The construction of 800 pillars from 810 planned along the Aluva-MG Road stretch has already been completed, according to Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL).

Work on the remaining 10 pillars has not begun, with five planned in the land to be acquired from Seematti textiles . But, authorities have failed to acquire land even after two years of marathon talks with the textile owner.

On March 12, the revenue department had issued a notice to Seematti to surrender their land by March 18. Revenue officials served the notice after KMRL sent letters to the district collector, demanding the immediate acquisition of land.

KMRL had prolonged the discussions with Seematti to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU), giving certain privileges to the textile group in lieu of surrendering 32 cents required for constructing the viaduct.

In November last year, KMRL had requested the district collector to take over land forcibly after discussions failed. Later, the state government asked the revenue department and KMRL officials to hold another round of discussions to sign a MoU with the textile owner.

As the second round of talks also failed, KMRL sent a letter to the collector asking him to take immediate measures to acquire the land. "Though, the deadline for surrendering land ended on Wednesday, the textile owner has not handed over the land. So, we will issue a notice to them to surrender it in 48 hours," said district collector M G Rajamanickam.

There are allegations that authorities are adopting double standards when it comes to acquiring the land of the rich and powerful. "It is only eight months since the land acquisition process for Pachalam ROB began. In the case of Metro rail, it is now over two years after the acquisition process started. But authorities evicted Pachalam residents quickly. But they have given more time to big shots," said Abiju Suresh, a BJP leader, who led the agitation against taking over land for Pachalam ROB.

"They served a 48-hour notice to landowners in Pachalam while they gave six days to Seematti textiles. This exposes the double standards adopted by authorities," he said.

