Uprighht Survey officials find the going tough

Despite attempts to bring in transparency in the survey department, many of the senior officials, including additional director who is second in command and who had taken severe steps against corrupt officials is being made a scapegoat under political pressure.

With pressure mounting from the various unions against some of the officials, especially additional director E R Sobhana, the revenue department is known to have decided to give the charge of the additional director to a joint director. It is alleged that the decision has been taken without looking into the complaints that have been raised against the additional director but only on certain political pressure. Apart from this, the sources said that the move was also alleged to scuttle the survey inspection of Karuna estate. Sobhana has been given the charge of the survey of the estate after the government constituted a team to trace the excess and illegally possessed land with the Karuna Estate at Nelliyampathy.

Moreover, sources said that the official who is now being given the charge had been involved in many controversies. The survey vigilance unit had earlier recommended for suspending and even demoting this official who is now being handed over the charge. As many as five cases are also pending with the survey vigilance unit against the official, highly placed sources said.

It is known that the Chief Minister had written in a file that was forwarded to the revenue department for taking necessary action on the complaint. This was also confirmed by Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash, who earlier said that the CM had asked to take necessary decision on the complaint that has been raised against the additional director. However, he did not divulge more on the issue.

As part of streamlining the survey department, the additional director had transferred certain people who were siting idle for years at the directorate to other offices, which is alleged to have led certain union leaders to come forward against the additional director.

Source: The New Indian Express

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/459838/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/17-03-2015#page/5/1

Karuna Estate: revenue dept for cancelling all mutations

The Revenue Department that probed the controversial Karuna Estate issue has recommended cancelling the mutation of all excess land in their possession as per the Kerla Land Reforms Act. The land Board Secretary in the report also calls for retrieving all illegally possessed lands.

In the report, Land Board secretary P Mary Kutty has recommended surveying 3129 acres of land in the region for tracing the exact area of land that is vested with the government after 1970.

The Revenue Divisional Officers should be directed to cancel the mutations of all excess lands immediately, the secretary said in the report that was submitted to the government recently.

Apart from this, she also recommends a high level team comprising of Revenue, Survey, Forest and Registration to trace the excess land that has to be vested with the government. And another special team should be constituted with officials from the Survey, Forest and Revenue for surveying the whole region.

Source: The New Indian Express

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/352055/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/08-10-2014#page/5/1