Thiruvananthapuram: With the local self-government department (LSGD) rejecting corporation's plan to offer higher land prices for fishermen community for purchase of land under LIFE housing mission, mayor V K Prasanth has directly appealed to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking his intervention against the LSGD directive.As per the order meant for fishermen community, a district-level and state-level committee has been constituted. This committee is empowered to fix a price 200 times higher than the fair value provided it is ideal for construction of houses. The corporation had appealed to the state government to issue a similar order for the sake of projects related to waste management and LIFE housing mission as soaring land prices crippled corporation’s efforts to find ideal spots for housing mission.However in a reply from additional chief secretary, LSGD, to mayor V K Prasanth, it was cited that such an order can’t be made applicable for city corporation. Further it advised corporation to buy land through mandatory negotiation procedure or it can go for acquisition.Mayor V K Prasanth in a communication sent to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has pointed out that corporation has identified 13 different plots for LIFE housing mission, however, the rates fixed by revenue department for these plots are much lesser than the market rate and hence land owners are unwilling to sell their land. This has affected the procedures for land purchase as part of LIFE mission , mayor noted in his letter.Around 18,000 landless beneficiaries have been identified for LIFE housing mission within corporation limits. In 2017-18, corporation had allocated Rs 5.4 crore for purchase of land, however, the land could not be bought owing to high price rate. In 2018-19, corporation increased the allocation to Rs 14 crore in people planning scheme for land purchase,still the problem persists due to astronomical price rates in many parts of the city. The mayor has stressed the request to let corporations make use of the provisions of the order meant for fishermen community by which land could be bought at 200 times the original price.The civic body needs to pool at least 100 acres to accommodate the beneficiaries chosen under LIFE housing mission. The government’s flagship scheme has been halted in the city with officials coming to a dead end with regard to fixing prices that would please land-owners. One plot was identified near Karamana River where the land value fixed by tahasildar was Rs 1.5 lakh per cent while the market rate commanded a price between Rs 3 and Rs 4 lakh per cent.In Thirumala village, the team has identified 1 acre 18 cents, but again the land owner could not be convinced to sell off the land at Rs 1.5 lakh per cent which was fixed by the revenue authorities. The road side plot near Njandoorkonam was another case which ended in failure. The tahasildar fixed the price for the plot at Rs 80,000 per cent while the market value ranged between Rs 2-3 lakh per cent.

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