Thrikkakara municipality has no right to claim rent for land, says cooperative hospital authorities

Premises is now being used to run medical store, opthalmology department and Ayurvedic treatment centre

The Thrikkakara Municipal Cooperative Hospital authorities have said that the Thrikkakara municipality had no right to claim rent for the land that it had used to launch the hospital facilities more than two decades ago. The premises where the hospital originally operated out of is now being used by the cooperative society to run a Neethi medical store, an ophthalmology department, and an Ayurvedic treatment centre.

P. Sukumaran Nair, president of the cooperative society, said the land did not belong to the municipality. It was a piece of revenue land and owned by the government, he said, adding that the municipality had no ownership of the land and thus no claim to any rent. Information on the status of the land was obtained by the cooperative society through an RTI application after the municipal authorities had demanded rent for the use of the land in 2014.

The municipal authorities claimed that the land belonged to the civic body and that the cooperative society was renting out the space, a claim denied by the hospital authorities. The municipality had demanded payment of total rent arrears of more than ₹31 lakh.