The Hindu : Front Page : Efforts on to ensure peace at Chengara

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Wednesday, Sep 03, 2008
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Efforts on to ensure peace at Chengara

Special Correspondent

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat met a team from Chengara on Tuesday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Concerted efforts are on at the level of the government and the CPI(M) leadership to avert any outbreak of violence at Chengara where plantation workers are planning to hold a march to the venue of a land struggle in the estate land of the Harrison Malayalam Group.

The government has issued strict instructions to the district administration to ensure that there is no breach of peace in connection with the march planned by the trade unions, which have been staging a ‘blockade’ on the roads leading to the estate land where hundreds of Scheduled Caste and Dalit Christian families are on an agitation for land for cultivation and habitation. The confrontation between the two sides has been a matter of concern and efforts are under way at different levels to find an amicable solution to the stand-off.

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development Minister A.K. Balan was in touch with the district administration and the district leadership of the party on Monday following reports that some Dalit families headed for the estate land were beaten up by the plantation workers. The offices of the Chief Minister and Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran also have been keeping a close tab on the unfolding situation with strict instructions to the administration to see to it that nothing untoward happens in the area.

On Tuesday, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, who discussed the issue with Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, was told that all steps were being taken to ensure that there was no breach of peace and no attack on the agitators.

Mr. Karat told a delegation of women activists, who called on him on Tuesday evening with a memorandum seeking an early resolution to the Dalits’ struggle for land, that the Home Minister had been told to prevent violence as part of the march on Wednesday. Issues relating to plantations in general would have to be dealt with separately, he pointed out.

The delegation appealed to Mr. Karat to ensure that there was no further violence against women participating in the agitation and the plantation workers’ blockade was lifted at the earliest. He assured them that the CPI(M) and the government were fully sensitive to the issues raised by them.

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