The land will soon be reclaimed in accordance with the state orders and will be handed over to the forest department to be developed as a reserve forest area.
Kodagu :
The Ponnampet Tahashildar has sent an official reminder letter to the forest department for taking possession of the 1203 acre land developed by Tata Company as a tea estate in Kodagu.
The land will soon be reclaimed in accordance with the state orders and will be handed over to the forest department to be developed as a reserve forest area.
In the letter dated December 20, Tahashildar Yogananda has mentioned the handing over of 1203 acre land across survey numbers in Hysodluru, Poradu, West Nammale, and T Shettigeri villages of Ponnampet taluk to the forest department.
The 1203 acre land was leased to Tata Coffee Limited Company and since the period of lease of 99 years has been completed, the same needs to be handed back to the department as a reserve forest area.
In 1914-1915, Mac Dogal Glenlora Limited leased nearly 1300 acre paisari land from the then British Government for a period of 999 years. This leased land was handed over to Tata Coffee Limited (then known as Consolidated Tea Company).
The timber in the paisari land was cleared to make way for a coffee and tea estate and the land was changed from ‘paisari’ to ‘Reedemed Sagu’.
However, the state argued that the land tenure was changed without the notice of the government and the tenure was a reserve forest area.
Further, while the land was leased by the then British government for 999 years, the same agreement was changed in 1940 by the then Coorg Commissioner to 99 years. Following this, notices are said to have been served to the Tata Company for handing over of the land even as the company approached the Court stating that the change in revenue documents from Redeemed Sagu to Reserve Forest land was done illegally by the government. However, the state argued that the Tata Company had illegally changed the tenure to Redeem Sagu.
The case was heard recently at the Virajpet Court and the Senior Civil Judge, MG Lokesh had disposed of the case on December 3 stating that the plaintiffs have to approach the revenue authorities and this cannot be decided in civil court. It stated that the revenue authorities or the Government can decide regarding this issue. However, the government had sent an order for acquiring the lands in 2012, which was then questioned by the company in the court.
After the court hearing, the Kodagu revenue authorities have followed the earlier government order defending the change of tenure from ‘Reedem Sagu’ to reserve forest and the Ponnampet Tahsildar Yogananda has now passed an order for reacquiring of the 1203 acre reserve forest land from the company.
“We have received the official letter from the tahsildar and steps will be taken to begin the acquiring process,” confirmed Chakrapani, Virajpet DCF.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Pragna GR, Express News Service / December 21st, 2021
