‘Kerala government’s sympathies with occupants’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government would take a lenient stand towards the occupants of the apartment complex at Maradu, which the Supreme Court has ordered to demolish for violating the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) rules, local self-government minister A C Moideen told the assembly on Thursday, in reply to a submission raised by M Swaraj MLA.
The minister said the government could not take a stand against the SC ruling, but its sympathies would remain with the occupants.
It was true that the residents were not heard in the court as the local body did not even let them know about such a case.
“Most of them have used the savings of a life time to buy the flats. They have door numbers allocated by the local body and have water and electricity connections, which are often denied to buildings that violate rules. I don’t say that there shouldn’t be action against violation of rules. But the fact here is that the innocent buyers are set to suffer due to the errors committed by officials and local body,” he said.
He said the CRZ zone where the apart complex stands has been ported from zone 3 to 2, which means that there was no legal hurdles in constructing new buildings in the same area by demolishing the old ones. One of the apartment complexes was built when the CRZ norms were non existant, he said.
He added that the cost of demolition would well surpass the cost of construction. Pollution caused by demoliton was another concern, he said.