Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

Police block roads to encroached estate

Police action: A Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi worker taken into police custody while on his way to the Kumbazha Estate at Chengara, near Konni, in Pathanamthitta on Monday.

PATHANAMTHITTA: In a tactful move to evict the Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi (SJVSV) activists from the Kumbazha Estate of the Harrison Malayalam Limited at Chengara near Konni, the police blocked road access to the encroached property from 10 a.m. on Monday.

A 100-strong police force blocked the two roads leading to the estate from Athumbumkulam junction, to cut off supplies to the illegal occupants.

The police have taken into custody 100 people, including the SJVSV general secretary, Thattayil Saraswathi, when they reached Athumbumkulam on their way to the encroached land. The police action was part of coercive tactics aimed at forcing the encroachers to vacate the land. District Collector Ashok Kumar Singh said the police action was in the backdrop of a High Court direction to clear the encroachment of the private property within a month. He said the Government could not permit people to take law into their hands and encroach upon other people’s property.

Mr. Singh said the district administration had to initiate action as the talks held twice with the Vedi leaders to resolve the issue failed.

Nearly 1,200 SJVSV activists encroached upon the private plantation on August 5, demanding five acres of land suitable for agriculture and Rs. 50,000 in cash for each landless family.

More families joined the illegal occupants, expanding their area of occupation, in the weeks that followed. Many of them started vegetable cultivation at the encroached land.

The number of tents pitched in the encroached land by the Vedi activists has gone up to 4000, according to SJVSV president Laha Gopalan.

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