ALAPPUZHA: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala has demanded the appointment of an independent agency or sitting judge to probe the encroachments on Government land at Munnar.

Inaugurating a peace rally at Vettiyar, near Mavelikara, here on Saturday, Mr. Chennithala said a judicial probe was necessary as "several top leaders of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) were involved in the encroachments."

Alleging that the encroachments had gathered steam in the past year, Mr. Chennithala said the allegations of involvement of United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders in the controversy were `baseless.' "We are ready to face any inquiry regarding this," he said. When the UDF was in power, the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had initiated immediate action when V.S. Achuthanandan, then the Leader of the Opposition, stated that land-grabbing was rampant in Munnar, he said.

The Congress did not attach much significance to Mr. Achuthanandan's visit to Munnar on Saturday as the Revenue Secretary had already submitted a report on the issue, Mr. Chennithala said. "Such encroachments should be stopped immediately because they can adversely affect the tourism potential of Munnar," he added. Earlier, he accused the police of being `hand-in-glove with CPI(M) goons' in Vettiyar where an RSS activist was recently hacked to death allegedly by CPI(M) workers. Terming the incident as `very unfortunate' and calling for peace in the area, he said the Congress would not sit back and tolerate the `misuse' of power by the CPI(M). Arattupuzha MLA B. Babu Prasad; Pandalam MLA K.K. Shaju; Alappuzha DCC president A.A. Shukoor; KPCC secretaries Mannar Abdul Latheef and Johnson Abraham were present.

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