Kerala Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan said here on Wednesday that there was no demand for transfer of the Wayanad district collector over eviction of members of the Adivasi Kshema Samithi who had encroached upon revenue land in possession of member of the Assembly Sreyams Kumar in Wayanad.
Talking to the media after Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister said that the police had harassed the encroachers during evictions. They had dragged off women. Some of the CPI (M) leaders,who were agitated over that, had raised the issue with the collector.
This was because the collector led the operation.
Mr. Achuthanandan reiterated that all encroachments would be evicted whether the encroachers were the Tatas or others.
Refuting that the suggestion that the agitation by tribals in Wayanad was being orgnaised to divert attention from the Munnar issues; the Chief Minister said that the issue in Wayanad was entirely different.
The tribals had been protesting for long against the failure of the government to grant them land. About 2000 families had been allocated land following the protests. The present agitation was over the government’s failure to continue the allocations for the remaining tribal families. It was not confined to land in possession of Mr. Kumar. They were encroaching upon excess land in different places.
In reply to a question from a reporter whether fresh encroachments would have happened at Munnar if he could go ahead with the Munnar mission in 2007, Mr. Achuthananthan said: “I take it as your considered view”.
