Kerala - Kannur   

Adivasis, Dalits plan joint land reforms movement

KANNUR: Adivasi and Dalit organisations are set to launch a joint land reforms movement demanding a comprehensive land allocation package for Dalits and other landless sections that is modelled on the Adivasi rehabilitation package.

Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, representatives of Adivasi and Dalit organisations said that existing land reforms rules that emphasise distribution of excess land to landless families, including Dalit families, were outdated. The conventional practice of assigning three cents of surplus land each to landless families was inadequate to empower the marginalised sections.

Stating that the Adivasi rehabilitation package announced during the tenure of the United Democratic Front government led by A.K. Antony was the best available scheme for tribals, they said that a comprehensive package be announced on the same lines for distribution of at least one acre of land to landless Dalits and other sections.

Kerala State Vettuva Mahasabha general secretary K.K. Narayanan, Rashtriya Mahasabha general secretary M. Geethanandan, Adijana Mahasabha convener E.P. Kumaradas, C. Padmanabhan of Bharatiya Pattikajana Samajam and Pattikajana Yuvajana Samajam general secretary Thekkan Sunil Kumar were present at the press meet.

Mr. Geethanandan said that only 26,000 families had been rehabilitated so far under the surplus land distribution scheme. The State had adequate land for distributing among five to six lakh landless families, he said adding that the government should take urgent steps to recover land illegally possessed by big private and government-owned estates.

Welcoming the State government’s announcement of a land bank to recover and protect government land from encroachers, Mr. Geethanandan said that the government should clarify the purpose for which the land bank was being set up. The land being vested with the land bank should be allocated to the landless Adivasis, Dalits and other sections in the State, he said.

The joint movement for comprehensive land reforms would be formed at a meeting of Dalit and Adivasi organisations to be held at Kottayam on April 12, he said.

The comprehensive package envisaged distribution of agricultural land to landless families. The movement would also resist any move by the government to evict people waging a struggle for land at Chengara in Pathanamthitta district, he said adding that what had happened at Muthanga in Wayanad during the previous UDF government would not be allowed to happen at Chengara. He added that land reforms committees would be formed in all districts.

The leaders of the organisations said that an elaborate convention of Adivasi and Dalit organisations would be held here on April 21.

A campaign for collecting food grains for the agitating landless people at Chengara would also begin on that day.

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