Kerala   

More people pitch tents in estate

In stir mode: Encroachers have pitched about 4,000 tents in the occupied rubber plantation.

PATHANAMTHITTA: The 10-day-old agitation for land by the Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi (SJVSV) activists took a new turn with more people pitching tents on the encroached land in the Kumbazha Estate of the Harrisson Malayalam Limited at Chengara near Konni in the past 12 hours.

Nearly 1,200 Vedi activists, many of them women, encroached upon the private plantation in the early hours of August 5, demanding five acres of arable land and Rs.50,000 in cash for each landless family.

The encroachers pitched about 150 to 200 tents at the occupied rubber plantation in the initial days. However, the number of tents went up to 4,075 till Tuesday forenoon, according to SJVSV president Laha Gopalan.

Talking to The Hindu here on Tuesday, the Vedi leader said the agitation was “by the landless poor belonging to all sections of society for the land promised to them by the Government in September last and there was no other m otive behind it.”

Mr. Gopalan said the Vedi had no political colour or sectarian interest – there were Nairs, Christians, Muslims and

Ezhavas among the landless encroachers. He said the Vedi’s agitation was strictly non-violent and aimed at pressing the Government to fulfil its promise given to the landless poor ten months ago. He claimed that Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan had given written assurance to Vedi leaders at a meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on September 27, 2006, that land would be allotted to the maximum possible landless families by December 31 and to the remaining families in the list provided by the Vedi, by August 1, 2007.

Mr. Gopalan said nearly 5,000 landless families were camping at the Kumbazha Estate and they would vacate the encroached land only after the Government allotted them alternative land.

He rejected the support extended to the Vedi workers’ agitation by Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha leader C.K. Janu and Rashtriya Maha Sabha leader M. Geethanandan. He alleged that Ms. Janu’s organisation had been degenerated into a “paper organisation” and it had no credibility at all.

“It was a sad truth that Ms. Janu acknowledged neither Dr. B.R. Ambedkar nor Ayyankali for reasons best known to her. Moreover, her organisation believed in violent struggle which the Vedi could never accept.”

Mr. Gopalan said the Vedi decided to work in tandem with the Adivasi Gothra Jana Sabha, the breakaway faction of the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha led by Sreeraman Koyyon. Mr. Koyyon was camping in Pathanamthitta.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party district leaders visited the encroachers and their leaders on Tuesday to extend support to the agitation.

He said Vedi workers from all the 14 districts in the State had come to the Kumbazha Estate and more workers would join the agitators in the coming days. They would stage a dharna before the Collectorate here on the Independence Day, he added.

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