Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

CPI(ML) seeks withdrawal of police

Volatile situation: A group of people have encroached upon Kumbazha Estate of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd at Chengara near Konni in Pathanamthitta district.

PATHANAMTHITTA: The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) has called upon the government to withdraw the police from Chengara, near Konni, where hundreds of landless people have encroached upon the Kumbazha Estate of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd.

At a press conference here on Tuesday, CPI(ML) State secretary P.J. James and district leaders M.K. Krishnankutty, P.K. Vijayan, V.G. Prasanakumar and M.S. Sadananadan said the party had decided to intensify its agitation for the cause of the scores of landless people in different parts of the State.

Mr. James alleged that the police deployed at the entry of the roads leading to the occupied area of the estate had been harassing the hapless families, cutting their food and drinking water supplies and denying them emergency medical care.

He said the living condition of the people at the estate was pathetic.

He alleged that the lease period of the estate in the possession of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. had expired and the company could no longer claim the estate as its legal possession. He called upon the government to take immediate steps to take over the land and distribute it among the landless poor who had been occupying the estate for the past two months.

Mr. James alleged that the government was forcing the landless people into the street by laying siege to the occupied land. The government was sidelining the fact that the Revenue Department had identified nearly 1,500 acres (one acre = 0.4 hectares) of excess land in the illegal possession of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. in 1974.

He alleged that the Forest Department had taken over 350 acres of excess land in the possession of the company at Chelikkuzhi without any justification.

He said the CPI(ML) would intensify the agitation demanding immediate takeover of the government land allegedly in the possession of the Harrisons Malayalam, Tata and A.V. Thomas and Company Ltd. in different parts of the State.

He said the CPI(ML) would support an agitation by any party or organisation for the cause of the landless poor.

Hundreds of people, including women and elderly persons, owing allegiance to the Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi had encroached upon the private plantation early in the morning of August 5, demanding five acres of land suitable for agriculture and Rs.50,000 in cash for each landless family.

The area of occupation by the Vedi workers went up in the weeks that followed and many even started vegetable cultivation on the encroached land.

The Vedi leaders claimed that the number of makeshift tents pitched on the encroached land went up to 4,000 by late August.

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