Protests against the Kerala government’s ambitious K-Rail SilverLine project have been gaining momentum, with many residents who are set to lose their land, house or both standing firmly in opposition. A prominent fear among the protesters is that, if evicted, they might not be adequately compensated by the government, which would in turn impact the quality of their life. Their concern, unfortunately, is probably with good reason. Here is a list of some of Kerala’s giant infrastructure projects for which residents had to give up their land and property, but are yet to receive due compensation from the government.
In November 2014, the people of Ramanthali panchayat in Kannur formed a human chain as an act of protest against the state government’s alleged move to begin another phase of land acquisition for the expansion of the Indian Naval Academy (INA) at Ezhimala. The academy was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008, 22 years after its foundation stone was laid. The first phase of land acquisition for the project had begun in 1983 and continued till 1984.
A total of 1,500 families were evicted to build the Naval Academy. “Around 2,600 acres were acquired for the project. The government had assured the residents that everyone losing their land and property would be adequately rehabilitated. But even though several promises including a proper electricity connection, drinking water supply and a school were made, none of those were met. The compensation amount given was also very less,” Narayanan PK, a social activist who was in the forefront of the protest in 1983, told TNM. The Kerala government, which had the late Congress veteran K Karunakaran at the helm, had acquired the land for the project at the behest of the Union government.
The families who were evicted from their homes eventually moved to various other places. “The compensation given by the government was not even half of the market price. Besides, even though a verbal assurance was given that members of the evicted families would be given jobs, that promise was also not kept,” Narayanan added. A portion of Narayanan’s ancestral property was also acquired for the project. A total of Rs 420 per cent (one cent equals 435.56 sq ft of land) was given to his family as compensation, even though the market price varied between Rs 800 to Rs 1,200.
It was in 2004 that the foundation stone was laid for the International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam, 14 km away from Kochi. Four years later, as many as 334 families were evicted for the project from the island clusters of Moolampilly, Mulavukadu and Kothadu, as well as Manjummel, Vaduthala, Eloor, Elamakkara, Edappally, Cheranalloor and Kalamassery regions. The forced eviction that took place in Moolampilly, where officials were seen dragging protesters out of their own houses, had garnered special media attention. Though the district administration had kept aside plots of land to rehabilitate those who were evicted, the area had no power, water supply or road connections. The people were also not properly compensated.
"I had nine cents of land in Moolampilly, and I had to give up all of it. Our ancestral house was demolished for the project. The compensation I received from the government for the land was very low compared to the market price then. I was able to buy only four cents of land in Eloor with that. I later built a house there, after taking out a loan from a cooperative bank. The dues are still pending, and this has put me in a debt trap," said VP Wilson, one of the residents who lost their land to the project. It was a district-level committee chaired by the District Collector that decided on the compensation amounts for the area acquired, after dividing the land into 16 categories.
“Those whose land was adjacent to the main road got fair compensation. But none of the Moolampilly evictees have been properly compensated. Initially, after the notification was released in 2005, officials had made promises like jobs for one member from every family (whose land would be acquired for the project). Later, we accessed the data regarding the project’s rehabilitation package after filing an RTI application. We soon found out that there was no mention of jobs or total rehabilitation for those who were evicted.”
Around 150 families were evicted in two phases for the construction of a waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram, located at the Vadavucode-Puthencruz grama panchayat 23 km away from the city of Ernakulam. Over 100 acres of land had been acquired for the plant, which was inaugurated in 2019. The land for the first and second phases was acquired by the Kochi Municipal Corporation and the state government respectively. The compensation for the first phase, however, is yet to be paid.
Suresh Kumar, a local resident, told TNM that they were literally forced out of their land. “The Corporation used to dump waste in the region even before the plant was set up, due to which we had to find shelter at a school. It was after we found this temporary shelter out of necessity that the land acquisition procedure started,” Suresh said.
According to Suresh, the compensation offered for the land was Rs 1.5 lakh, even though the market price ranged between Rs 3-4 lakh. The notification for the first phase of acquisition came out in 2007 and the land was acquired in 2008. The notification for the second phase came in 2009 and the land was acquired in 2010.
“Those who lost their land in the second phase received a major portion of the compensation in 2017 after they met the Chief Minister in this regard. But the payment is still not complete. Meanwhile, those of us who lost their land in the first phase had approached the Perumbavoor Sub Court in 2014 because the compensation offered to us was low. The court verdict was in our favour, but the Kochi Corporation made no move to pay us fairly. We later moved the High Court in 2017. The case is still underway,” Suresh added. He further pointed out that there would be two to three families in every house. “This compensation needs to be shared equally among all. We had more than an acre of land to call our own. Now, with the compensation we got (for the second phase), my three siblings and I bought a few cents of land each,” he said.
In an earlier interview with TNM, Suresh had said that many of the evictees only realised that the compensation they had received was far from fair when they tried to buy another house or a plot of land.
Phase one of the Kochi Smart City Project, a joint venture involving the Kerala government and the Dubai-based Tecom Investments, was inaugurated in February 2016 by then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Initially, in 2007, an amount of Rs 4.65 lakh each was promised as compensation to those who were evicted for the Smart City project, under which an Information Technology (IT) Special Economic Zone was to be established in Kochi. However, the compensation was delayed for nearly seven years, because of which some of the people who lost their land sought a renegotiation, considering the increase in the land’s market price as well as the unfair delay in the distribution of funds.
“We submitted a petition to MG Rajamanickam, who was the Ernakulam District Collector then (in 2014), seeking an increase in the compensation as the initial agreement was made back in 2007. He asked us to submit an application to this effect and assured us that we would get the promised money as and when the government-sanctioned it. But this has still not happened. We have received the initial amount we were promised, but not the additional payment we had demanded,” said Kizhakkambalam native Salim, whose land was acquired for the project.