Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy has said that if the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government is not taking steps to return the tribal people their land lost to the windmill company in Attappady, the United Democratic Front (UDF), if returned to power next year, will take steps to restore the lost land.
Inaugurating a march organised by the UDF from Nallasimha tribal hamlet to the windmill farm in nearby Kottathara village on Tuesday, Mr. Chandy said the incidents of forcibly taking away the tribal land and putting up windmill farm were an encroachment on the rights of the people.
The CPI(M) which failed to take action to stop such encroachment on tribal land in Attappady had taken the same stand of the company which had said that it had bought the land legally, he said.
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In Wayanad, the CPI(M) was asking tribal people to encroach upon private land, but in Attappady the party was helping the multinational companies to usurp tribal land. This showed the double standard of the CPI(M) on the issue, he said.
Mr. Chandy said CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat who made thundering speeches against multinational companies at a special party meeting in Vijayawada should intervene and correct the mistake committed by his party in Kerala.
‘‘Mr. Karat should visit Attappady and find out for himself the unpardonable crime his party had committed against the poor tribes of Attappady by helping the windmill company to take away the tribal land without out their knowledge,'' Mr. Chandy said.
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Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who first raised the matter in the Assembly last month, said Minister for Welfare of Scheduled and Backward Communities A.K. Balan had stated that since the land was purchased after the cut off date of tribal land restoration of 1986, no action could be taken against the company.
‘‘This is contrary to the fact because here the question is not the tribal land law but a great scam involving hundreds of acres of tribal land forcibly taken away by a multinational company. No tribal people have given their land to the company. But the company is holding over 150 acres of their land,'' he said.
The meeting was addressed by Kerala Congress (B) chairman R. Balakrishna Pillai, Indian Union Muslim League general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty, Socialist Janata (Democratic) president M.P. Veerendrakumar, secretary general K. Krishnankutty, Communist Marxist Party (CMP) leader C.P. John, Kerala Congress leader Johny Nelloor, Revolutionary Socialist Party (B) leader Shibu Baby John, Janadhipathya Samrakshna Samithy (JSS) leader Rajan Babu, C.P. Mohammed, MLA, among others.