A protracted fight by a group of environmentalists against filling of a pond in Palakkad Municipality now meets with partial success. The Agriculture department has asked the district administration to restore Parakkulam at Kunnathurmedu, which had been partially filled by land mafia.
The directive from the Principal Secretary came the other day as the latest development of a protracted agitation led by environmentalist Boban Mattumantha.
“It sends home a great message. Just like the message the Supreme Court sent with the demolition of skyscraper flats at Maradu, the Agriculture department’s order to restore Parakkulam holds a big message. It is the first time we see an order to restore a filled water body. For us, it’s the Water Day celebration,” said Mr. Mattumantha.
Out of the 224 ponds in Palakkad municipality, only 126 remain as ponds. All others were filled by vested interests with the support of government officials.
The involvement of a village officer, an additional tahsildar and a revenue divisional officer (RDO) got exposed by the Parakkulam Samrakshana Samiti led by Mr. Mattumantha who fought the case for five years. It was found that RDO Anil Kumar had converted the 1.21 acre pond through an order in 2008 based on the reports of Palakkad-3 village officer and the additional tahsildar.
Although the involvement of the revenue officials was exposed, the district administration had allegedly displayed slackness in taking action on the matter. Former Land Revenue Commissioner C.A. Lata in her report in 2019 had found the conversion of Parakkulam as illegal and pre-planned with devious motives, and that penal action could be initiated against the RDO even after his retirement. It was found that 1,740 loads of soil had been dumped into the pond as part of filling it. A revenue vigilance inquiry is currently on following Ms. Lata’s report.
It remains a mystery as to who started collecting tax on the 1.21 acre pond and since when. “We can find a nexus between the land mafia and certain revenue officials in several filling cases,” said Mr. Mattumantha.
The Land Revenue Commissioner has asked the Revenue Vigilance Deputy Collector to submit a preliminary report in a month and a detailed report in three months about the involvement of government officials in the pond conversion.
District Collector Mrunmai Joshi on Tuesday told The Hindu that she was yet to see the directive from the Principal Secretary, Agriculture, and that she would look into it soon. “Action will be initiated soon,” she said.
