- The project: Kochi container terminal
- The issue: Inadequate compensation
In 2005, K.N. Ramakrishnan and his wife Valsala were leading a quiet retired life in Eloor, Kochi, when they got the first shocker: an eviction notification under the Land Acquisition Act 4(1) for the support road for the Vallarpadam international container trans-shipment terminal (ICTT), hailed as a mega dream project for the state. That was the beginning of what would turn out to be a horrifying nightmare for the couple. Ramakrishnan, who retired from the fertiliser company FACT, had spent his life’s savings (Rs 4.5 lakh) on building a house in ’95. The DLPC (district level purchasing committee) rate of land value amounted to Rs 60,000 per cent and commission officers decided not to give compensation for the house but only for the land acquired.
“They wanted one bedroom, the sit-out and a quarter of the living room and were adamant they would only pay for that area,” says Valsala. For Ramakrishnan, now 76, the anguish of his home crumbling before his eyes took a toll on his health. “They brought a JCB excavator to bring down my house. I cannot tell you the kind of pain I went through. With the help of the other evictees, I protested and was finally allowed to do the demolition on my own. I was paid an immediate relief of Rs 2 lakh for the 2.5 cents but nothing for the house. Some 12 per cent of the amount was deducted as tax at source...I spent Rs 80,000 on the demolition and the rest on lawyers and court fees. I could not buy another plot as land value meanwhile was skyrocketing and is now Rs 10 lakh per cent on this road. I suffered two heart attacks and am now on medication. We filed a case for higher compensation but when the new UDF government came we were offered four cents of land if we withdrew the case from the courts,” says Ramakrishnan. So he withdrew the cases pending in the courts.
Then came the next shocker. The four cents of land offered as the Moolampilly rehabilitation package in Kothad was reclaimed wetland and unlivable. Moreover, the state government had inserted a clause that the land cannot be sold for the next 25 years. “To add to our woes, the Kothad panchayat has not exempted the land from the Coastal Zone Regulation Act so one cannot construct anything there. That land is useless,” says Ramakrishnan.
The ICTT was a Rs 2,000 crore fast-track project under the aegis of the Cochin Port Trust and the state acquired 43.65 hectares of land for road connectivity and 4.30 hectares for rail connectivity through seven villages. Some 326 families were evicted from their homes while many more lost land, shops etc. “Only those evicted from their houses were given some immediate relief. Those who lost their land have not got any compensation at all. In 2011, the lower courts and HC directed the government to pay compensation but nothing has come till date. It’s been 10 years now. We were promised jobs but no one’s got a job at the terminal.”
Today, the dream ICTT project is running at a loss. The Cochin Port Trust spent Rs 2,000 crore on development and gave it to a foreign firm, Dubai Ports. “What kind of development is this when the people of this country lose their life’s savings and land and are not given any compensation?” asks Wilson V.P., a Moolampilly coordination committee convenor, who lost 9 cents land to ‘development’.
By Minu Ittyipe in Kochi
