All landless tribals in Kerala will get land by January: Minister

The Minister for SC and ST Welfare A.K. Balan has said that all the landless tribals in the State will be given land under the Forest Rights Act and the restoration of alienated tribal land law by January next year.

Talking to media persons at Attappady during his two-day visit to the tribal area on Saturday the Minister said that all the tribes will be given houses before ending the five-year term of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.

He said that the tribals in the State required 25,000 houses. Already 14,000 houses were given and steps are taken to construct the remaining houses.

He said that the LDF government has constructed 1.3 lakh houses for the scheduled caste and 17,000 houses more are required.

Thus before the term of the LDF ends all the families of scheduled caste will be provided houses, the Minister said.

He said that the Varkala incident in which some Dalits allegedly killed an innocent person is an example of the exploitation of downtrodden and the weaker sections of the society for nefarious activities. Though it is an isolated incident it should be taken seriously and the genuine grievances of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people should be solved.

The Minister began his tour of Attappady with the inauguration of the Akshaya Centre at Gulikadavu.

He has also inaugurated the cultural meet of tribes from Palakkad, Idukki, Wayanad and Malappuram districts.

At Nellipathy hamlet he laid the foundation stone for the housing scheme for tribes.

The meeting was presided over by Deputy Speaker Jose Baby and M.B. Rajesh, M.P was the chief guest at the function.