Land retrieval from the Tatas on

Senior IAS officer K Sureshkumar is a busy man these days. He is supervising the eviction programme in Munnar, i.e. taking over the land that the Tatas had allegedly occupied.

Talking to Business Standard, he said the 1,120-acre block the Kerala chief minister had taken possession of on Wednesday was government land. But there are 31 blocks with an area of 17,698 acres under the direct control of the Tatas.

Suresh said some land in 31 blocks was located adjacent to the tea estates of the Tatas or encircled with the leased land of the industrial group. This area has not yet surveyed and taken possession of.

"The government has given me this job to do. In the first phase, we have taken possession of 1,120 acres, where there was a board of Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Ltd, in which Tata Tea has a 19 per cent stake," he said.

"Government officials have removed the board and put up a new one, informing the public that it is government-owned land. This was done in the presence of the chief minister. The process is going on and now the land is being surveyed and more government land now under the control of Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Ltd will be taken possession of," he added.

"We have taken possession of the government land. It is up to the government to decide whether it should be treated as forest land or revenue land. Obviously this can be treated only as forest land since it is adjacent to tea estates and dense forests. But as of now it is not vested with the forest department," Sureshkumar said.