KANNUR: Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes and Electricity A.K. Balan has said that a consensus has been reached for a peaceful solution to the issue of stalled assignment of land for landless Adivasis in the Aralam Farm with the involvement of people's representatives, political parties and Adivasi organisations.

Addressing a meet-the-press organised by the Press Club here on Friday, Mr. Balan said the meeting of people's representatives, party leaders and representatives of Adivasi organisations that he convened in the morning to discuss the issue arrived at a consensus for appealing to the Government to give priority to assigning the farm land to landless Adivasi families in the district. The proposal for reviewing the previous Government's decision to assign one-third of the land to the Adivasis in Kannur and two-third to those in Wayanad would be taken up before the Government as a consensus decision of the meeting, he said.

The District Collector and the Revenue Department would ensure that only the landless Adivasi families were selected for land assignment in the farm, he said adding that the undeserving Adivasis who had been illegally occupying the farm should voluntarily vacate the land. A monitoring committee comprising the people's representatives, political leaders and Adivasi leaders would be constituted to spread this message of the meeting across to those occupying the land, he said.

Mr. Balan said that it was also decided to measure and apportion the land allocated for the 840 Adivasi families which had already been given title deeds. Each of these families would be sanctioned Rs.3,000 for erecting temporary huts, Rs.1,000 for purchasing farm implements and Rs.75,000 for constructing houses. They would soon be allocated Rs.19,000 as first instalment.

The Minister that a new bus would be purchased for the Adivasi school students in the farm.

The Left Democratic Front Government was committed to solving the issue of rehabilitating landless Adivasis in the State in a time-bound manner, the Minister said. Stating that shortage of land was a major hurdle, he said steps would be taken to provide food, shelter and land to Adivasis.

Power sector

Mr. Balan said the electricity sector in the State would soon face crisis unless the installed capacity had been increased from the present 2,100 MW to 4,500 MW as the number of electricity consumers in the State would go up from the present 82 lakhs to over one crore in five years. The State required 1,000 MW units for offering job opportunity for 10 lakh people, he pointed out.

The Minister said that the Government would ask the Union Government to review the Rajiv Gandhi Grama Vidyut Programme as the turnkey system it envisaged would lead to huge tender amount. Admitting that there was a crisis in the generation sector as a result of hurdles and stagnation, the Minister said the Government, therefore, was planning to give importance to small projects that would not attract opposition from environmental groups.

Terming the Central Electricity Act as potential terminator of the Kerala State Electricity Board, Mr. Balan said the proposed reconstitution of the board would lead to its privatisation. Exerting pressure on the Union Government to exempt the State from the purview of the Act and forming a subsidiary company for trading to suit the provisions of the Act with generation, transmission and distribution kept under the public sector were the options being discussed at the Government level, he said.

Review meeting

Earlier, the Minister attended the review meeting on the Aralam farm. Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was also present. Mr. Balakrishnan told the Adivasi organisations to take the initiative to evict Adivasis illegally occupying the Aralam farm land.

A.P. Abdullakutty, MP, MLAs P. Jayarajan, K.K. Shylaja, K.C. Joseph, Ramachandran Kadannappally and M. Prakashan were among those present at the meeting.

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