TN revenue officials destroy paddy crop on 5 acres of land to retrieve water body

TRICHY: Revenue officials razed down fully-grown paddy crop on an encroached water body in Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu.
Confirming the encroachment a few days back, district administration had taken a written undertaking from encroachers that they would hand over the land after harvest in a couple of months.
However, officials chose to retrieve the water body when they learnt that the encroachers were planning to move high court against district administration. Speaking to TOI, revenue divisional officer, Pudukkottai, M S Thandayuthapani said that it was initially decided to retrieve the water body after standing crop was harvested. But encroachers were planning to approach Court against retrieval of land. “So razed down the paddy crop to retrieve the water body without any delay,” the official said.
Spread across three hectares, the water body belonging to rural development department was encroached up on by a few influential people in Kulanthiranpattu village.
Writer activist Durai Guna who had brought the issue to the notice of the revenue officials several times in the past was put behind bars after he had pasted posters in the village inviting collector aspirants for Pudukkottai.
However, he was successful in attracting attention of authorities as a team of revenue officials visited the village last week and carried inspection.
Collector Uma Maheswari asked officials to retrieve the land after the harvest. However, a team of revenue officials with police protection razed down the crop and 28 coconut trees on Thursday.