FIRM ON THEIR DEMAND: Members of Hakki Pikki tribe who launched a dharna cooking food on the premises of the Deputy Commissioner's office in Hassan on Wednesday.

HASSAN: Members of the Hakki Pikki tribe re-launched their indefinite dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's Office here on Wednesday demanding allotment of land (forest land) to them for cultivation in Angadihalli in Belur Taluk, 20 km from here.

Last month, the tribe members presented a memorandum to Minister for Public Works and Energy H. D. Revanna, who is also district in-charge Minister, urging him to allot them land reserved for social forestry in Angadihalli. They said similar land had been allotted to their tribe members in Chikmagalur district.

The main trade of this tribe is hunting birds. The State Government had banned hunting birds and decided to allot them land for cultivation so that they can be brought into the mainstream.

Mr. Revanna had assured them that he would get them land and directed the Deputy Commissioner to send his recommendation to the Government. Accordingly, Deputy Commissioner had sent his recommendations to Government.

Opposition

On Monday, villagers of Angadihalli staged a dharna before the Deputy Commissioner's office urging him to not to allot forest land for the Hakki Pikki tribe as they had availed themselves of several facilities from Government and were now trying to get more.

The villagers demanded that land be allotted to poor people in the village. Members of the Hakki-Pikki are nomads and allotting land to them would serve no purpose, the villagers argued.

As a counter to villagers' agitation, the Hakki Pikki tribe members launched their dharna and said that they would not withdraw their agitation until land was allotted to them.

Deputy Commissioner K.H. Aswathanarayana Gowda tried to convince them that he was not the land allotting authority and that he had to get orders from the Government at a higher level, but the members were not ready to accept it. Their women folk started preparing food inside Deputy Commissioner's office premises.

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