Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary M.V. Govindan here on Tuesday slammed Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan for distressing lakhs of subsistence-level settler farmers in the Idukki district by stubbornly refusing to sign the Kerala Government Land Assignment (Amendment) Bill passed by the Assembly into law.
Inaugurating the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Idukki district committee’s march to the Raj Bhavan, Mr Govindan said Mr. Khan will face mass protests if he failed to discharge his constitutional duties as the titular head of the State.
The Bill empowers the State government to regularise any contravention of the conditions attached to land leased by the government to settler farmers for agricultural purposes. It also allows the government to permit the settlers to use the land for purposes other than initially assigned. The influential law allows land use for construction. It removes many constraints on land use in the environmentally sensitive hill district. CPI(M) leader and former Minister M. M. Mani also spoke.
The police stopped the march on the road leading to Raj Bhavan.
