[Reader-list] CPI-M activists evict Kerala tribal families
Anivar Aravind
anivar at movingrepublic.org
Tue Nov 27 13:58:30 IST 2007
This News is also covered by mainstream Malayalam dailies
Anivar
CPI-M activists evict Kerala tribal families
Web posted at: 11/27/2007 0:54:59
Source ::: The Peninsula/ By John Mary
http://tinyurl.com/2thxab
Thiruvananthapuram • In a Nadigram-style operation minus the violence,
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) activists drove out tribal people
from Government land atop the Munnar hills today, thwarting their move
for a permanent settlement.
Tribal families, who had pitched tents on 1,500 acres allotted to
Hindustan Newsprint for its captive plantation at Chinnakkanal, were
caught unawares as the CPM cadres staged the takeover operation this
morning. The activists, backed by local party reinforcements later in
the day, tore down tents and put party flags, declaring the success of
the operation.
Local people said tension prevailed in the area since tribal activists
have threatened to recover the land and not to leave until the
Government honored its commitment to distribute land to all landless
Adivasi families in the State.
Tribal families, including children, had occupied the land under the
banner of the Adivasi Punaradhivasa Samrakshana Samithy (tribal
rehabilitation protection committee).
The provocation had come as the fallout of the deal struck between Chief
Minister AK Antony and tribal leader C K Janu. At a grand function,
Antony distributed title-deeds but only 540 families out of the 798
families got the land.
“They had waited for more than five years for the land. The Government
had forced them to resort to direct action. They have run out of
patience and there’s no question of returning without getting the land”,
said tribal solidarity leader C P Shaji.
However, the local CPM leaders alleged that Congress and Communist Party
of India had instigated the tribal people to occupy Government land so
they could grab the land once the dust settled.
Tribal agitation has traversed a chequered course in Kerala. Janu had
led many families on a 48-day sit-in in front of the Government
Secretariat soon after Antony came to power in 2001.
The agitation ended with Antony agreeing to a seven-point demand, mainly
five acres to each landless tribal family and a rehabilitation package
to ensure that the land was not alienated.
However, the pact suffered a setback after Janu led a tribal band to the
Muthanga wildlife sanctuary in the northern Wynad district two years
later, leading to deaths a policeman and a tribal youth.
The most important fallout of agitations has been that both the
Government and the tribal activists succeeded in shifting the focus of
the nearly 50-year-old tribal struggle in Kerala from the issue of
“restoration of alienated land” to one of “land for the landless tribal
people”.
In April 1975, Kerala Assembly unanimously adopted the Kerala Scheduled
Tribes (Restriction on Transfer of Lands and Restoration of Alienated
Lands) Act, which sought to prevent the lands of the tribal people from
falling into the hands of non-tribal people. The Act also sought to
restore to the tribal people their previously alienated lands.
But that has remained mostly on paper.
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