Were the senior revenue officials involved in alleged land grab file manipulation?
25 Dec, 2013
The land revenue commissioner of Kochi had issued an order suspending Kanayanoor additional tahsildar and Thrikkakara North village officer stating that they acted against law in connection with the Kalamassery land grab case. It was also decided that departmental action would be initiated against some other revenue officials.
In this regard, the petitioner has presented before the court a reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act which states that high echelon revenue officials had handled the related files between August 2, 2011 and August 21, 2013 – the period in which their alleged manipulations took place.
The reply said that former land revenue commissioner, land revenue commissioner, joint land revenue commissioner, assistant commissioners, senior superintendent, junior superintendent and upper division clerks were also there in the office during the said period.
The Kerala High Court has also pulled up the state government for failing to take actions against those officials who were found to have manipulated revenue records related to these cases. The government promised before the court that action will be taken on the basis of probe by vigilance and anti-corruption bureau but the court directed the government not to wait for vigilance inquiry to be completed and initiate action against the erring officials.