Land dispute over sports council’s swimming pool

KANNUR: Even as environmentalists are campaigning for the revival of Kakkad River, which is almost dead, a swimming pool built by district sports council is coming up on its banks. They allege that the pool is actually going to be built on encroached land which is part of the river in the suburbs of the town.
“This swimming pool was constructed on the land which was actually part of Kakkad River, and it has been reclamated after encroaching it,” said Vinod Payyada, president of Kannur Jilla Paristhithi Samithi, a group of environmental activists.“But the authorities are least bothered about the river, and they claim the swimming pool was built on revenue land.”
People are not against any development for the improvement of sports infrastructure but when sufficient land is available elsewhere, why should they build it here, he asked.
“As per a resurvey in 1997, the land is part of the river, though the authorities claim that it is just a vacant land adjacent to the river. Moreover, the land was given to build an indoor stadium whereas they built swimming pool,” he said. “A total of 3.5 acres were reclamated here by the government as well as private groups and the Jilla Paristhithi Samithi is planning to approach the green tribunal in this regard,” he added.
According to revenue officials, there is no record that shows the land given to sports council was part of the river, but the exact position could be ascertained only after a survey.
“Since the course of the river changed over years, it is possible that some portion of the land given to the council is part of the river in its previous course, but we have to do a survey of the entire stretch to get a clear picture,” said Kannur tahsildar V Gopinath. Though a survey had begun two years back following allegations of encroachment, it halted in the initial stage itself.
However, the sports council said they got the land from Puzhathi panchayat and it was reclamated before they got it. “Since the panchayat charged from us the money it spent for reclamation, we never enquired if it is revenue land or reclamated land,” said O K Vineesh, president of the Kannur district sports council.
He also said the panchayat told them not to make any permanent construction there, which it obliged.
The 25x12 metre swimming pool will be inaugurated next month and it will be used to provide training to children, he added.