A group of landless families, including tribespeople, in the district under the aegis of the Thovarimala Land Struggle Committee, is gearing up to intensify their ongoing agitation demanding two acres of land for the landless after retrieving the land under the illegal possession of the corporates.
Speaking to presspersons here on Tuesday, spokespersons of the committee K.V. Prakash and P. Veliyan said that braving harsh weather conditions, 150 landless people under the aegis of the All India Krantikari Kisan Sabha (AIKKS) and the Adivasi Bharath Mahasabha (ABM) had been continuing their indefinite agitation in front of the Collectorate here since April 24. They began the strike after they were evicted from a piece of vested forestland at Thovarimala under the Meppadi Forest Range in the South Wayanad Forest Division. The agitation was not to get a three-cent plot for the landless, but to ensure land and house for the marginalised section of people who were denied land after the land reforms in the State, they said.
Nearly 60% of the plantation land in the State is under the illegal possession of the corporate companies. But the successive governments were trying to support the corporates, instead of adopting any measures to retrieve it and assign it to the landless, Mr. Prakash said.
The families would take out a march to the Collectorate on Thursday as part of intensifying the agitation. The march, raising the slogan ‘Provide land to the tillers’, would also be a protest against the apathy of the government to the landless, they said.
