With the time period fixed by the Supreme Court for the families of Maradu apartments to vacate their homes ends, Justice K Balakrishnan Nair, who is part of the three-member panel appointed by the apex court to oversee the fixing and distribution of compensation for the residents, said that they have started their work.
After the first round of meeting held between Justice Balakrishnan and high-ranking state department officials, he told media the panel will begin hearing the parties in the case and fix a fair compensation.
The Supreme Court, when it gave the order for eviction, had directed the setting up of a three-member committee, headed by retired Kerala High Court judge K Balakrishnan Nair, to see to the distribution of compensation and also the steps for demolition.
"I will now hear the government, the builders and the flat owners to finalise the compensation payment as directed by the apex court and this will happen very soon. The government will first pay the compensation which will be recovered from the builder," he said.
However, the state government is yet to provide a retired IAS officer and a civil engineer to complete the committee that Justice Balakrishnan heads. The first that the panel will have to deal with is the compensation which the apex court has fixed at a maximum of Rs 25 lakh and he will decide if further compensation needs to be given.
Speaking to the media, senior bureaucrat Usha Titus, who led the talks with Justice Balakrishnan, told that things like valuation of the flats will have to be looked into and decided by the apex court-appointed committee. "We expect to get the office of this committee set up very fast so as to see that they are able to work," she said.
However, according to a report of The News Indian Express, about 150 flat owners do not have proper proof to show their ownership. The uncertainty over whether the flat owners will be able to get fair compensation now brews. According to reports, some flat owners, at the time of registration, has only put the value of flats around Rs 2-3 lakh, to save on the hefty stamp duty. Whether these will come as a hurdle to get compensation, will have to be seen.
Meanwhile, Kerala Police Crime Branch chief, Tomin J Thachankary, who has been entrusted with the job of probing how the builders were able to build these flats and find those who were responsible for this, was spotted at the flat complex.
He told the media that his work is going well and he will soon be able to zero down on how this happened.
Snehil Kumar Sing, Fort Kochi RDO, who has been appointed as municipal secretary of Maradu to oversee the demolition process, told TNM that the company to be given charge of demolition will be finalised on Sunday. “There are six companies who have applied for the tender. A technical assessment is being done on their applications, we will finalise it on October 6,” said Snehil Kumar.
(With inputs from IANS)
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