Maradu flats demolition: How officials looked the other way

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In 2007, following a complaint from a local resident, who alleged that the secretary wasn’t sanctioning her house, a team from the Town Planning wing of the Local Self-Government Department raided the office of the Maradu panchayat secretary and seized several documents from Asharaf, including 31 building permits issued in alleged violation of norms and without KCZMA clearance. The four apartment buildings in question now were among the 31. Asharaf was asked to issue stop-memos to builder, but by then, construction was in full swing.

In 2007, the builders approached the single bench of the High Court, which stayed the stop-memos, calling them arbitrary.

Asharaf was removed. His successor, P J Antony, submitted an affidavit in the High Court in 2007, stating that given Maradu’s “well-developed nature”, the region should be categorized as CRZ II — that is, areas that have been developed up to or close to the shore line. Such a categorisation, instead of the more stringent CRZ III, would have made many of the constructions above board. The KCZMA did not object to it. Construction progressed.

In 2010, Maradu became a municipality. In 2013, the Maradu local body moved an appeal in the High Court against the verdict of 2007. The immediate provocation was the debate over alleged CRZ violations by DLF in Kochi. By then, most of the flats had been occupied. The KCZMA, which had remained silent for over a year, impleaded in the case, saying the constructions should be in accordance with CRZ norms.

In its verdict in 2015, the division bench of the High Court blasted the local body and KCZMA, asking why they hadn’t acted earlier.

In 2016, the KCZMA moved the Supreme Court, demanding that the High Court’s remarks against it be expunged.

On May 8 this year, the court ordered the flats demolished.