The Hindu : Kerala News : Chandy to resume visit to problem areas

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Sunday, Jan 09, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Chandy to resume visit to problem areas

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 8. The Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, will resume his visit to problem areas on January 14 touring the eastern areas of Kannur district.

The Chief Minister will be specially looking into the problems of arecanut farmers in the district who had been hit by fall in prices and diseases. Several farmers reportedly faced revenue recovery proceedings.

Though the Government had announced that arecanut would be procured at Rs. 10 a kg. above the market price, the procurement is yet to begin.

Mr. Chandy will be holding discussions with the officials concerned in this regard. Steps were needed for the revival of the arecanut as well as other corps in the district.

Attappady visit

The Chief Minister had earlier taken steps to address similar problems of farmers in Wayanad district. A package is being implemented for the farmers there.

The Chief Minister proposes to visit Attappady later to look into the problems of the tribals. Much money was spent in the area for tribal development from the First Plan onwards. However, the result did not match the money spent owing to corruption and other problems. The latest project, Attappady Hill Area Development Programme, is also to show the desired results.

Mr. Chandy will be examining how each rupee could be spent effectively. Lapsing of allocations also needed to be tackled. Steps like organising the tribals into `Oorukoottams' and entrusting some of the responsibilities of development to them is being tried. The tribals are demanding that the area should be declared as a scheduled area.

RMS threat

Our Staff Reporter writes from Kannur:

The Rashtriya Maha Sabha (RMS) today warned that it would revive the Adivasi agitation for land in an attempt to mobilise public opinion against the move to "torpedo" the assignment of Aralam farmland among the landless Adivasis in the region.

The RMS State general secretary, M. Geethanandan, told a press conference that there were moves to "usurp" the Aralam farmland that had been transferred by the Central Government to the State Government for Adivasi rehabilitation.

The main objective of the next phase of the agitation is to ensure that the farmland purchased by the State Government with Rs. 42 crores from the Tribal Sub-Plan fund be used for the Adivasi rehabilitation. The stir would demand that the assigned land be brought under the Fifth Schedule, he said.

The RMS would organise an Adivasi march to the Aralam Farm on January 10 under the leadership of the RMS president, C. K. Janu. The march would start from Kakkayangad, he said.

He termed the stand of the mainstream political parties on assigning the farmland among the Adivasis as unethical and deceptive.

He recalled that all the parties had worked behind writing a letter to the previous National Democratic Alliance Government demanding not to assign the Aralam Farm land to the Adivasis.

No land

Mr. Geethanandan said there was no land in the district other than the farmland for rehabilitating 5,000-odd landless Adivasi families here. The farm could also accommodate a section of Adivasis from the neighbouring Wayanad district. However, political parties appeared to be involved in a conspiracy to scuttle the assignment of the farmland to the tribals, he said.

Trade unions of farm workers who had not raised the demand for wage increase when the farm was under the control of the Central Government forced the workers to go on a strike and stop auctioning of farm produces after the farm was transferred to the Tribal Department.

This strike was to help a high-level conspiracy aimed at inflicting huge losses on the farm and the Tribal Department as part of converting the farm into a private limited company. There was also a conspiracy to revive a tourism project on the farm that had been attempted earlier by the previous Left Democratic Front Government.

He said that the march on January 10 would mark the beginning of the agitation against the move to scuttle the Adivasi rehabilitation project and convert the farm into a private company.

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