Stir against transfer of land at Irinavu

KANNUR: Environmental groups and activists are preparing to launch an agitation against the transfer of 66.45 hectares of land at Irinavu by the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) to a Noida-based private company to start a thermal power project and cement factory.

A local action committee — Irinavu-Pappinissery Samrakshana Samithi — will take out a mass march at Irinavu on August 15 demanding that the lease agreement of transfer of land to the company be revoked.

The samithi leaders said the agitation would express the protest by the people of Irinavu and nearby areas against the proposed projects, which they feared would ruin the environment and affect their livelihood.

The protest comes in the wake of the disclosure that 66.45 ha of land at Irinavu taken over by Kinfra 13 years ago to set up the Kannur Power Project (KPP) by Kannur Power Project Ltd. (KPPL), promoted by K.P.P. Nambiar, has been handed over to the Noida-based Jayaprakash Power Venture Ltd. on lease for 90 years at a sum of Rs.14 crore for starting a coal-based thermal power plant and a cement factory. Kinfra had entered into the agreement with the KPPL in 1997 for allotment of land to set up a 513-MW combined cycle thermal project jointly with the Enron Corporation of the U.S.

The project announced with much fanfare then, however, did not come up due to various reasons.

The disclosure of transfer of the land by Kinfra to the Noida-based company has also raised concern that the land has been handed over on lease at a paltry amount.

Samithi chairman D. Surendranath said the leasing of the land for 90 years at a ‘throwaway' price of Rs.14 crore raised public concern about a possible murky land deal and land utilisation for projects that would harm the environment of the largely agricultural area.

The samithi's demand was that the land be kept under the possession of the government and utilised for agriculture-related projects.

A march and pledge against the project on Independence Day would mark the beginning of the agitation, Dr. Surendranath said.

The Payyannur-based Society for Environmental Education Kerala (SEEK), which is among the organisations supporting the samithi's agitation, viewed the transfer and the proposed projects as harmful to the ecologically fragile environment and the livelihood of the people.

SEEK Director T.P. Padmanabhan said Irinavu comes under the Coastal Regulation Zone-I where no construction activities are allowed.

The land deal involved in the transfer of land to the Noida-based company would lead to land utilisation that would endanger the livelihood of people who depended on agricultural activities, he observed.

Source:The Hindu,10-8-2010