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Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec.6 The State Government will take stringent measures to recover the land held by Harrisons Malayalam Plantations after the expiry of lease rights.

The State Cabinet took a decision to this affect on Thursday.

The Chief Minister, Mr V.S. Achuthanandan, told newspersons after the Cabinet meeting that the company had also sold part of the land leased to it by the Government.

The Government would conduct surveys to ascertain the extent of the land held illegally by the company and take immediate steps to recover them, he said.

The Cabinet also gave approval for acquiring land for the expansion of Karipur airport in Kozhikode.

The Chief Minister said that the Airports Authority of India should consider the cost involved in acquiring the land as the Government’s equity in the project.

Mr Achuthanandan said the steps initiated by the Government to bring down the price of rice in the open market in the State had started showing results. For one, the Civil Supplies Department had opened special ‘rice shops’ in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode selling ‘matta’ rice at Rs 14 a kg and raw rice at Rs 11.50 a kg.

He noted that the price rise was due to the drastic cut in the Central allocation of ration rice to the State. From 1.10 lakh tonnes annually, the allocation had come down to 23,000 tonnes now, leading to the price rise.

The Chief Minister said that he had brought up the issue with the Prime Minister during his visit to Delhi recently and had sought the restoration of allocation to the earlier level. He also met the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, who explained that the current problem in Kerala was due to the deficiencies in the procurement of rice in Andhra Pradesh this season and shortage of railway wagons to transport the rice.

On Mullaperiyar dam issue, Mr Achuthanandan said that he was looking forward to meeting his counterpart from Tamil Nadu during the National Development Council meeting in Delhi on December 19.

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