Munnar encroachment: All-party meet on June 24

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday said that the government will convene an all-party meeting on June 24 to evolve a political consensus on evicting the encroachers in Munnar.In his post-cabinet briefing here, the Chief Minister said that there would be no bulldozing of encroachments, but encroachers would be evicted using the law of the land.Be it revenue land, forest land or any land owned by any government department, the encroachers would be evicted within no time.“There would be no compromise on this and please wait and watch how we are going to act,” Chandy said when asked how the government was going to evict the encroachers.“The task forces were appointed for delaying the eviction and not with a good intention.We are not going to appoint any such task force.There is law and government officials in Munnar. They will act according to the law,” the Chief Minister said.All political parties are against encroachment and hence the government wants to get their views on the eviction process.The Cabinet discussed the report submitted by Revenue Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan after his visit to Munnar and decided to evict all the encroachers from Munnar, where the lands have been identified.The Cabinet also decided that the action to be taken in Munnar should not affect the farmers and Adivasis of the region.Nelliampathy A total of 3,168 acres of encroached forest land in Nelliampathy, in the possession of 25 estates, should be taken back by the Forest Department under the Kerala Grants and Leases (Modification of Rights) Act, according to a directive by District Collector K V Mohan Kumar, a Palakkad report said.The directive was issued to the Divisional Forest Officer of Nenmara.