KOCHI: Kerala High Court on Monday granted permission to the state government to go ahead with the stone-laying ceremony for the township for rehabilitating landslide survivors in Wayanad. The inauguration is scheduled to be held on March 27.

While declining an interim order on a petition filed by Elstone Tea Estate Limited for restraining the government from taking over its land for setting up the township, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice S Manu allowed the government to take symbolic possessions on depositing Rs 26 crore towards compensation before the High Court Registrar subject to the rights and contention of the estate company.

 The court also directed the state government to file an affidavit explaining how the compensation of Rs 26 core was arrived at.

The court passed the order when the appeals filed by Harrisons Malayalam Ltd and the Elstone Estate challenging a single judge’s order upholding the state government’s order to take over their estates came up for hearing.

When the appeals came up for hearing, counsel for the Elstone Estate company submitted that what had been offered as compensation was meagre when compared to the market value of the property. It was submitted that the land was valued at Rs 549 crore.

The company had already filed a separate petition challenging the government decision to award Rs 26 crore as compensation. The company was not standing in the way of rehabilitating the landslide survivors, submitted the counsel.Advocate General K Gopalakrishna Kurup submitted that the state government was ready to deposit the amount and the works for the townships would commence without delay.