Thiruvananthapuram: A Malayalam movie song of the early 1970s captures the nostalgia that every Keralite carries about his very own little piece of land and a house on it.
The lyrics by legendary Malayalam writer, P. Bhaskaran talks of the melancholy feeling of Malayalis of owning a little piece of land and his little perch of a house on that plot.
Translated, the lyrics read, ‘In the land of coconut palms, I have a little piece of land; And on that patch I have a bird’s nest-like thatched home, perched on four legs’.
Four decades down the line, a property like that need not be safe as in the past, as real estate gangs, fake land registration mafia and gangs that exploit the sand and rock resources have turned a real threat to many who have put all their life’s savings into their dream homes.
The latest example for that emerged earlier this month when the compound wall and the rear portion of the house of the late economist and vice-chairman of the Kerala State Planning Board, Iqbal Singh Gulati, collapsed at Kumarapuram in the state capital.
Indiscriminate excavations close to the Gulatis’ house had been threatening the house built by legendary architect Laurie Baker in the early 1980s, and the house finally collapsed in July, forcing Gulati’s widow, Leela Gulati, to move into their outhouse.
If that happens to the house of such a well-known person, it is obvious that the ordinary citizen has much to fear from the greed of realty and natural resource gangs.
Some of these gangs have such sway that they sometimes even threaten district administrations. A few years ago, gangs threatened none less than the then Kozhikode collector K.V. Mohan Kumar for confronting them, and local media reported an attempt to run a truck into assistant superintendent of police trainee, J. Himendranath in Kasaragod district.
These attempts on senior officials have been followed by attacks on numerous police officials across the state. There has also been an attempt on the life of a journalist, V.B. Unnithan, in Kollam district for his reports on mafia activities.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala had admitted some years ago when he was the president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee that the “land mafia is buying up land in large chunks across Kerala”.
There are rules in place to prevent someone excavating earth from close to another person’s building. Says Abraham Joseph, a senior project engineer based in Thiruvananthapuram: “There is a new rule whereby the city corporation will sanction higher floors of a building only after the project promoters complete the excavation work satisfactorily. Building owners in the vicinity can also give a notice to the city corporation if they find illegal earth excavation close to their residences.”
However, the rules seem to be easily flouted as land sharks go about their business with impunity. In 2007, the then chief minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, declared a war on land mafia and his government demolished some buildings in Munnar that had been constructed illegally.
And this month, the Kerala High Court ordered stoppage of rock blasting operations on properties at Mukkunnimala on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram after some local people petitioned the court that their life had become miserable owing to the blasting and mining operations.
For many Keralites who have finally achieved their dream of a home in the state, the reality is that they have to be on constant alert about earth-movers excavating earth from too close to their homes.
