[Reader-list] Trade unions strengthen blockade at Chengara

[Anivar Aravind]

Trade unions strengthen blockade at Chengara
The Hindu
Radhakrishnan Kuttoor
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/05/stories/2008090552460400.htm

CHENGARA (Pathanamthitta dist.): The year-long agitation for land at
Chengara under the aegis of the Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi
(SJVSV) is set to enter a new phase with plantation workers deciding
to strengthen their month-long road blockade by extending it to round
the clock from Wednesday.

A group of SJVSV activists allegedly made an attempt to break the
human barrier formed by nearly 50 women owing allegiance to different
trade unions on the road leading to the Kumbazha Estate on Wednesday
morning. Trade union leaders Malayalappuzha Mohan (CITU) and
Jyotishkumar Malayalappuzha (INTUC) alleged that the SJVSV activists
were armed and had threatened the women workers taking part in the
blockade. The Vedi activists retreated to the estate when the police
personnel on duty and other plantation workers rushed to the spot.

Meanwhile, SJVSV president Laha Gopalan and secretary Seleena
Prakkanam clarified that the Vedi workers wanted to go out of the
estate to collect food.
Charges raised

"The trade union leaders' allegation that the Vedi workers were armed
was part of a dubious design to label the landless people as extremist
elements," alleged Vijayan Mothiravayal, SJVSV convener at Chengara.

The SJVSV leaders said they had started rubber tapping a few months
ago to earn their livelihood after the government failed to redress
their grievances.
Subversive tactics

"Instead of redressing our grievances and allotting us land, the
government and the ruling CPI(M) are trying to sabotage the peaceful
stir through subversive tactics," alleged A.K. Bava, a 64-year-old man
from Vaikom who has been staying in the occupied area for the past six
months.

As per the Vedi's claims, as many as 24,000 people belonging to 7,282
families are occupying about 14,000 acres of land at the Kumbazha
Estate. The number of make-shift huts pitched at the estate will be
around 7,800, says Ms. Seleena.

"The road blockade launched by the trade unions has denied our people
food or transportation. We cannot take the sick and pregnant women to
hospitals. Waterborne diseases have spread in the occupied land," say
the Vedi leaders.

"We will not leave the place without getting land. The land allotment
should be uniform for all landless people, above caste and creed
considerations," said Ms. Seleena in reply to a question on the
proposal to allot land to only the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe
sections

Meanwhile, plantation workers say the encroachment of the private
estate has denied them their livelihood.

"We are not against allotment of land to the landless poor people, if
any, among the encroachers. But it should not affect our job
prospects," say Koshy Baby and V.R. Shaji, plantation workers' trade
union leaders.