Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Protest against eviction of Dalits

Special Correspondent

ON THE WARPATH: People evicted from a Dalit colony at Nainamkonam in Kollam district hold a protest march in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Bhoosamara Munnani staged a protest in front of the City Corporation office here on Tuesday to highlight the plight of 20 families of Dalits and landless poor who had been evicted from Nainamkonam allegedly with the connivance of a councillor of the Corporation.

C.N. Sathyan, general convener of the Samithi, alleged that these families who had settled there five generations ago were evicted on the basis of an order obtained by misleading the court. He claimed that their houses were demolished and set afire after evicting them. The evicted included a woman and her five-day-old child. He said several persons were yet to get over the shock of the terrifying atmosphere created by the police, including armed police, during the eviction drive. He also attributed the death of a person in the area to the developments. He alleged that an attempt was made to demolish 13 more houses in the area. Mr. Sathyan demanded the expulsion of the Councillor from the City Corporation.

He said the Samithiwould observe February 16 as `Black Day' against the eviction. The victims of the eviction would gather before the Navayikulam village office on that day and burn the Government in effigy. The demands raised by them included grant of title deeds to permanent residents of Nainamkonam, payment of reasonable compensation to those evicted, sanctioning of assistance to the family of the person who had died and demarcation and distribution of the surplus land.

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