The arduous task of refining the tentative list of over 26,000 Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) violations stares at the State government with the Supreme Court cracking its whip on such violations.
The apex court on Monday asked the State government to submit the list of CRZ violations in six weeks. The court directive came on a petition filed by filmmaker Major Ravi, who lost his apartment when one of the Maradu flats was demolished.
During the hearing of the Maradu case, the State Chief Secretary had assured the court that the list of violations would be drawn up soon.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has convened a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the verdict and decide on an action plan. The strategy of the State government on the sensitive issue will be finalised at the meeting, said an official.
State may seek time
The State is likely to seek more time to prepare the list as it is a time-consuming process. The State will also brief the court about the works done so far.
For preparing the final list, notices will have to be issued to owners of all the buildings mentioned in draft list to find out whether any court has regularised the violations. It also needs to be found out whether cases are pending in any court, the official said.
Serving of notices to over 26,000 people is likely to trigger panic and the State needs to tackle the situation.
The Hindu had last week reported on the unprecedented socio-economic and legal crisis looming over the State following the preparation of the list in the wake of Maradu demolitions.
For filtering the draft list, the State needs to segregate the buildings into residential and commercial ones and mark the distance of each building from the high tide line of the nearby waterbody. The plinth area of the buildings also should be ascertained.
Arduous task
The date of construction of the structures has to be obtained to find out the rules applicable to them.
The violations in each CRZ zone need to be classified separately. Also, the list should be cross-matched with the permissible and non-permissible activities in each zone. The process may take some time to complete, said an expert.