Close to 100 landless tribal families under the aegis of the Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha (AGM) have resumed their land agitation at Pambra, near Irulalam, in Wayanad on Wednesday, after an interval of two decades, in protest against the alleged denial of justice to tribespeople.
AGM leader M. Geethanandan told The Hindu that the alleged apathy of the government in providing land to the tribal families who had involved in the Muthanga agitation led to the agitation.
Mr. Geethanandan said the organisation had called off its ‘Nilpu Samaram’ (standing protest) in front of the Secretariat, after the government promised to fulfil its demands. The demands included a rehabilitation package for tribal families involved in the Muthanga agitation and compensation for tribal children and other victims who had been arrested in connection with the agitation.
Though the government had agreed to provide one acre of land each to 295 landless tribal families and as a part of it, the government failed to keep its promise.
The government had allotted land to the families in different parts of the district but, many a piece of land was uncultivable or barren.
The Ministry of Forest and Environment had handed over 19,000 acres of land in the State, including 7,000 acres of land in the district, in 2004 after the Muthanga agitation for the rehabilitation of the landless tribal families. A huge portion of land in Wayanad was either utilised for the government projects such as Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, ‘Ennuru’ project, Navodaya school and Model Residential School for tribal children or encroached by many tribal feeder organisations of leading political parties, he said.
The government had allotted one acre of land each to 65 families at the Mariyanad estate at Pambra under the Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) in 2016. The 235 acres of land of the estate were included for disbursing to the landless tribesmen.
But the government could not disburse the land in a time-bound manner after the workers of the estate prevented the officials from the survey of the land. The alleged laxity of the government in paying their incentives and other benefits provoked them.
As the issue was yet to be sorted out amicably, the 65 families were still continuing as landless, Mr. Geethanadan said.
Close to 400 members of the 100 landless tribal families were participating in the agitation by clearing the undergrowth and erecting huts on it. The agitation would be intensified in the coming days if the government continued its apathy toward the landless tribes people, he said.
