The Kerala government will submit to the Supreme Court on Friday an action plan detailing step by step the measures it intends to take for the demolition of over 400 flats as ordered by the apex court for violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules even as local authorities started to cut water and power supplies to the apartment towers in Maradu near Kochi.
According to the action, the government has asked for 1238 days time to finish the task of demolition. The government said that the process would begin on September 29 with the evacuation of the residents, a process that would take four days. The actual demolition of the flats would be from October 11 to January 9 and the next one month will be on cleaning up the debris. The plan will be handed over to the court tomorrow by the chief secretary to the state government, Tom Jose.
Meanwhile, amid heavy police presence, the power supply was disconnected around 3 am, while the water supply was stopped a few hours later, said residents of the apartments, who protested calling it to be human rights violation.
Fort Kochi Sub-Collector Snehil Kumar Singh, who has been given additional charge as secretary of Maradu Municipality to carry out the demolition, said the directions given by the government, including disconnection of power and water supply to the apartments, were being implemented. The action comes days after the government was pulled up by the Supreme Court for not complying with its order to raze the buildings.
The government held a meeting and decided to write to the Kerala State Electricity Board and Kerala Water Authority to disconnect power and water supply to the apartments with immediate effect.
Residents of the complexes said they would not leave their flats and would intensify their agitation against the human rights violations.
“Officials are taking steps to throw us out on the streets. We are not the culprits. We will not leave our homes. We will stay here,” a representative of the flat owners had said on Wednesday.
—India Legal Bureau