Find out why Pinarayi Vijayan won't take back Law Academy land
- Influential communities, political parties and trusts also benefited hugely by the land assignment by successive governments.
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The student agitation against Kerala Law Academy (KLA) exposed the alleged misuse of public land assigned to it by the government three decades back. Even though the clamour for the revocation of the land assignment is getting stronger, the government is unlikely to take back the land as it will have a cascading effect on similar land transfers in the past, which includes gifting of public land to organisations and political parties.
It is alleged that Lakshmi Nair, the principal of the KLA and her father Narayanan Nair, the founder-director of the institution, are living in an apartment built on the land allotted by the government. A restaurant run by Lakshmi Nair, who is also a celebrity cookery show host, is also functioning in the campus, under the guise of college canteen. Another building is rented out to a bank, violating the rules of land assignment for the educational institution in 1985. Last week, the Revenue Minister E Chandrashekharan ordered an inquiry into these allegations and is likely to submit a report on Monday detailing the violations.
Nevertheless, the government is unlikely to revoke the land assignment to the KLA even if the Land Revenue Principal Secretary points out the violation of conditions laid down while allotting the land as it would set a precedence and affect similar land assignments to political parties including the ruling CPM with retrospective effect.
AKG Centre, the CPM headquarters in the state capital, is functioning in land allotted for AKG Study and Research Centre forty years back. The Chemistry Department of Kerala University was functioning in the 28 cents of land when the then AK Antony government gifted it to the CPM. When a controversy erupted over using the public land as CPM state headquarters in 1988, the party claimed that the bylaw of AKG Memorial had provision to use one floor of the building as party office.
Influential communities, political parties and trusts also benefited hugely by the land assignment by successive governments. In 2005, Ommen Chandy government further eased the rules through an order that allowed the government to assign a public property to govt.-aided private education institutions functioning in land leased out to them. The order of the Revenue Department also enabled the government to siphon off lease amount dues. Even though the Left parties criticised such land assignments, the Left government that succeeded the Oommen Chandy regime did not bother to cancel the order.
In 2016, at the fag end of its regime, the second Oommen Chandy government went on a land assignment spree. The CPM criticised the assignments and termed it a 'violation of all norms to appease wealthy and influential caste and religious groups.' Though the Left demanded the cancellation of these assignments, the Pinarayi Vijayan government that assumed office in May last year is dragging its feet on these controversial land allotments.
