Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

Tribal people encroach on land at Olikallu

Staff Reporter

PATHANAMTHITTA: About 50 people, including women and children, belonging to 11 families of the Malavedar tribe encroached on 10.87 acres of government land adjoining Thamarappally Estate at Olikallu near Vadasserikkara on Friday night.

The encroachment was reportedly led by the local units of the Adivasi Malavedan Mahasabha and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).

The land has already been earmarked for allotment to 14 tribal families by the Government at a `pattaya mela' held at the Collectorate recently. The beneficiaries were selected from among 40 applicants through a draw of lots held in the presence of Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran on the occasion. However, none of the 14 tribal families has occupied the land so far.

The encroachers alleged that many of the tribal people who figured in the list of landless families prepared by the district administration were not eligible for land as they possessed land of their own. They demanded that the land at Olikallu be allotted to local landless tribal people belonging to the Malavedar community.

The encroachers demanded a meeting with the District Collector when Additional District Magistrate B. Mohanan visited the spot in the forenoon. The Collector held discussions with the leaders of the encroachers in the afternoon. The Mahasabha leaders (Kesavan, Gopalan, Manoj) and CPI(ML) leaders (Pappachan ad Krishnankutty) with whom Collector Ashok Kumar Singh held discussions said there was no question of vacating the land without getting an assurance that the land would be allotted to the local Malavedar families.

The said the administration would inquire into the complaints filed by the Mahasabha and CPI(ML) leaders. The Collector asked the Mahasabha leaders to submit a list of landless tribal people in the locality so that he could take appropriate action at the earliest.

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