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Tuesday, Apr 14, 2009
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National

Green voice from Kerala hinterland

K. Santhosh
Thrissur

KUNJAN PULAYAN

PARTY: Poura Munnettam

CONSTITUENCY: Thrissur

STATE: Kerala

MISSION STATEMENT: To address woes of farmers.

Kunjan Pulayan looks sadly at his empty barn as his wife Ammini asks him to borrow paddy from a relative. “I am a landless farm worker. Sometime back, I leased some land and started farming. But now farmlands in the village are shrinking because of the sand mafia,” he says.

Mr. Pulayan and agricultural workers at Muriyad in Thrissur’s rural hinterland tell a tale of empty barns, shrinking paddy fields and failed dreams. It is to highlight their woes that Mr. Pulayan has decided to contest the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat. The 52-year-old farm worker represents ‘Poura Munnettam,’ a forum with no political affiliation.

“Political issues do not concern us. We are concerned only with protection and irrigation of our paddy fields. Also, we want to get fair prices for farm products,” he declares.

Under the banner of the Karshaka Munnettam, the Muriyad agitation was launched in 2007 after the area under cultivation in the region shrunk from 4,452 hectares to 2,833 hectares because of the sand/clay mining, conversion of paddy fields to brick kilns, and large-scale procurement of land from indigent farmers by sand miners.

The farmers want a permanent ban on sand mining, drainage of water from paddy fields, and the setting up of a land development authority exclusively for Muriyad.

He is proud of his surname, Pulayan (a Dalit community). “Do you know the meaning of ‘Pulayan’?” he asks. “It means ‘one who works on the land.’ Our community is rooted in agriculture. As far as I know, five generations of my family have been engaged in farming,” he says. “I am not contesting to win. It is only to highlight the need for a farmer’s voice to be heard in Parliament,” he adds.

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