more-in A private party has reclaimed acres of wetland adjacent to the Kazhakuttam-Kovalam National Highway 66 bypass using as cover a request by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for use of the land for the casting and stocking of concrete girders, as part of the four-laning work. The Pettah Village office had earlier this month issued a stop memo against the filling and reclamation of the wetland in violation of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act 2008. The said piece of land, owned by one Shameem Majid, is located on the left side of the highway from Kazhakuttam, just before the Chakka junction. On February 2, the NHAI sent a letter to the owner saying that the contractor KNR constructions had identified the land in survey numbers 89, 90, 92 and 110 of Pettah village, for casting and storing of prestressed concrete girder (PSC) girders and other purposes related to the four-laning of the Kazhakuttam – Mukkola section of NH 66 bypass. The letter requests the land to be made temporarily available for the purpose. The filling of the land began the next day. Local residents and activists who noticed the filling of the wetland alerted revenue officials. Following a site inspection, the Pettah Village office issued a stop memo against the work on February 7. But the work continued at night, as evident from the site, in which only a small portion is left to be filled. In reply to the stop memo, the owner of the land cited the letter from the NHAI and argued that the stop memo should be vacated as it is being used for a public purpose. When asked about this, an NHAI official said that the authority does not have any control over the land use on either side of the 45-metre wide highway. “We have no control over the land beyond these 45 metres. The contractors identify such lands for storage at various points along the highway. The NHAI just provides the request letter. The owner cannot use this letter as an excuse to reclaim land. If someone does that, the person is responsible for the act. It is the job of the revenue officials to find out if there is any illegality,” said the official. According to Kishore Kadakampally, an activist who was among the complainants against the wetland reclamation, the NHAI officials should have given clearance for land use only after site inspection. “They have not carried out site inspection, before sending this request. Private parties can now use this method as a cover to bypass the Paddy Wetland Act and reclaim acres of such land. Reclamation of this large piece of wetland will lead to flooding in the nearby residential areas,” he said.

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