The struggle over right of land is being re launched under the aegis of Kerala SC/ST Coordination Committee, the umbrella organization of over 15 dalit organizations, chairperson C K Janu has said.
Speaking to media persons, she said the dalit segment has the right to be part of the development process in the country and the key to participation lie with the ownership of land. The second phase of the struggle will be launched at a public meeting here on December 12, she said.
The dalit leader said that the development of Kerala can be realized only through the involvement of the dalit community by implementing the second phase of the land reforms in the State. At a time when the State was witnessing unprecedented price rise of essential commodities, the government was engaged in an effort to sell off cultivable land in the name of industrial development. The need of the hour was to bring back land into the hands of those who till the land and create wealth, she said.
That the land remained fallow and that farming was being shifted to the realm of commercial interests, proved that the land reform efforts were not complete and effective in Kerala, she said. Hence the launching of the struggle for right to land by the dalit community, she said.
The committee also wanted the government to take action against the grama panchayat authorities who had desecrated the BR Ambedkar ‘Smrithi Mandapom’ and Ayyankali idol at Kattappana . They wanted the authorities to put back the idol at the former place and warned that they would launch state wide agitation on the issue.
K K Purushothaman, (KPMS), EP Kumaradas (Adijana Maha sabha), N K Neelakandan master (Kerala Pulayar Mahasabha) K Sivadasan and others participated.
