TIRUNELVELI: At a time when a sense of euphoria has come over the villages near the proposed Special Economic Zone at Nanguneri, thanks to the boom in the real estate business owing to the proposal to have a hi-tech park in the SEZ, the residents of Inaam Alangulam fear eviction.

The village, situated on the Nanguneri - Ervadi stretch, has 450 houses.

Of the five streets there, houses on two are on the land belonging to the Nanguneri Jeer Mutt. Other houses are built on patta land.

One hundred and fifty acres of cultivable wetlands around the village, also belonging to the mutt, have been feeding the villagers through the `kar' and `pisanam' paddy seasons.

The SEZ has been planned on the barren land east of the village. The officials felt that the land acquired (2,100 acres) was insufficient, and it was decided to acquire 450 acres more.

The villagers were at a loss when Revenue Department officials recently marked the land and two streets for acquisition.

If the farmland around the village and the two irrigation tanks - Mela Kulam and Keezha Kulam - are acquired, the people will be forced to leave the village."Instead of acquiring the wetland, around 450 acres of barren land south of Soorankudi, Kadamboduvaazhvu and Kalungadi could be acquired," says Aalai V. Subramanian (65), Comunist Party of India's Inam Alangulam farmers' wing secretary.

A group of farmers from the village, led by CPI Nanguneri union farmers' wing secretary Perumbadaiyaar, recently submitted a petition to Collector G. Prakash.

"When alternative land is available, the administration should consider acquiring it. Or else, we will mobilise the farmers against any land acquisition at the village and organise an agitation," says Mr. Perumbadaiyaar.

Official sources said the final decision was yet to be taken by the Government.

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