Thiruvananthapuram: Government’s second U-turn on the Silver Line issue. It has been decided to call back the revenue officers assigned in various districts to acquire land for the project and assign them other duties. The decision has been taken in the context of delayed central approval for the project and the social impact study is uncertain.
This is the next step after the policy retreat which replaced the social impact assessment with yellow pegs after heavy protests and agitations and replaced it with geo-tagging. Meanwhile, government sources indicate that no order has been given to close down the cells except to withdraw the officers.
About 205 revenue officials were appointed in 11 districts in connection with land acquisition. They did not have any significant work for a year and a half. Their appointment was for one year. After this deadline expired on August 17, the Revenue Department extended the deadline for one more year in September.
The state has 11 units of special tehsildars consisting of 18 persons each in the districts, with Ernakulam as the center, a special deputy collector and his office. The land acquisition cells were started presumptuously before getting the central permission in the estimation that the social impact study would be done in a timely manner and the land acquisition could be moved towards the project quickly.
However, contrary to the government’s expectations, heavy resistance has risen across the state. The order regarding the withdrawal of officers will come down soon. K-Rail explained that no official notification has been received in this regard.