The revenue department had shot off a letter to the registration department, asking them to stall new registration of land in the area that is notified for the western ring road project.
“Land acquisition would be carried out in 15 revenue villages in Coimbatore North, Perur and Madukkarai blocks for the project. So, do not carry out any registration work, nor provide any no objection certificate/building licence for the land that is earmarked for the project,” district revenue officer D Ramaduraimurugan had said in the letter to the registration department in August.
While revenue department officials said they had in the past informed the registration department about the changes in alignment and the letter was sent as a reminder, their counterparts in the registration department said they had not received any such letter earlier.
The state highways department had changed the alignment of the road project to 32.4km from Mayilkal to Narasimhanaickenpalayam, from 26km from Kuniyamuthur to Thudiyalur in 2014 and obtained administrative sanction from the state government in 2016.
K Kathirmathiyon, secretary, Coimbatore Consumer Cause, said, “While the alignment was changed years ago, it was only a month ago that the revenue department notified the same to the registration department. During the period, several land transactions and building construction had taken place on the project route.”
Explaining that four villages in the first draft were not included in the second draft, in which eight other villages were added, he said the revenue department was yet to communicate about the villages that were removed, stalling land registration there. “The registration department is unlikely to start registration process there without a letter from the revenue department, mentioning that land in those villages won’t be required for the project.”
When contacted, a revenue official said, “We have mentioned the survey numbers of land where the project is going to come in the letter and asked the registration department to stop registration process only in those survey numbers. So, it is not necessary to send a separate letter, mentioning the land that is removed from the project.”
