Kerala - Kannur   

Government adopting double standard on Adivasi land issue: Kodikunnil Suresh

Staff Reporter

KANNUR: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Kodikunnil Suresh has said that the Government's call to landless Adivasis occupying the Aralam farm land to voluntarily vacate it smacks of a design by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to disrupt the land assignment process with a view to enforcing the party's control over them.

Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr. Suresh, accompanied by Kerala Adivasi Congress (KAC) State president K.K. Manoj, said that while the Government was yet to take measures to evict the pro-CPI(M) Adivasi Kshema Samithi (AKS) workers who had occupied Government land in Wayanad and Idukki, the call of Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Backward Communities A.K. Balan for a voluntary evacuation by the Adivasis from the Aralam farmland betrayed the Government's double standards, he said.

Mr. Suresh said that the process of assigning land to the landless Adivasi families started during the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) rule had now come to a standstill. If there was further delay in land distribution, the KAC would be forced to occupy the land and erect huts there, he added.

There was uncertainty as to when assignment of the land for the Adivasis in Wayanad district would begin, he added.

Despite the announcement, free ration for the Adivasis was yet to be started, he said.

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Government adopting double standard on Adivasi land issue: Kodikunnil Suresh

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