Revenue Department officials probing allegations that 44.30 acre land in Ikkarai Boluvampatti village had been encroached upon completed the two-day inquiry on Friday. According to sources, on Thursday, the land owners submitted documents to the officials to establish that they were the rightful owners of the land.
There were 34 persons who had said that they had ‘patta’ (title deeds) to the 44.30 acre. The officials had summoned them and all the 34 appeared and furnished their record.
On Friday, members of the Communist Party of India and its various affiliates like the Farmers’ Association and Untouchability Eradication Front, Social Justice Front and Adi Tamilar Katchi furnished the records they had to claim that the 44.30 acre should belong to the tribal people.
After the expiry of conditional assignment period in 1991, a few of the 46 persons who held the patta then had sold their holdings and now the land appeared to be under the ownership of 34 persons, the sources said.
The CPI (M) and other organisations, who countered the claim, had alleged that forged documents were used to sell those lands.
Sources said that the officials had promised both the parties to verify the records for the past 50 years and study the issue. But they had not given any date of the next hearing or inquiry.
P. Sampath of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front said that the land belonged to the government and not the 34 people. Forged documents were used to claim ownership and that people unconnected with the land threatened the tribal people, who were supposed to get the land.
