The tribals under the aegis of the Adivasi Kshema Samithi (AKS), a wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), are intensifying their struggle for land in Wayanad.
As part of the agitation as many as 202 tribal families led by the CP(M) leaders in the district encroached up on 67 acres of land reportedly owned by Adv. George Pothan, Vice president, District Panchayat, Wayanad, at Perumthatta near here and erected huts there on Saturday.
A few days ago the Samithi had encroached upon 14.44 acres of land reportedly under the possession of M.V. Sreyamskumar MLA alleged as a surplus land at Krishnagiri in Wayanad district and erected huts there. Meanwhile nearly 48 huts had been erected on the encroached land at Krishnagiri.
P .Vasudevan, secretary of the Samithi said that they had encroached upon a land belonged to the government according to the Kerala Land Assignment Act of 1970 . Mr. George Pothan possessed the land allegedly by making false documents when the tenure of lease of the land was over, Mr. Vasudevan added.
C.K. Saseendran, secretary, CPI(M) district committee inaugurated the agitation.
But, Mr. George Pothan told The Hindu that he had purchased as much as 117 acres of land from Cadburys Limited in 1999 at a rate of Rs2.7crores and he had all the land documents including the renewal of rent and the “janmam” of the land.
50 acres of the 127 acres of land under his possession had been acquired by the State government by a compulsory acquisition for KINFRA project in 2000.
The Taluk Land Board had also declared that the land was not belonged to the surplus land in 1977, Mr. Pothan added. Mr. Pothan said that the land deeds and other documents of the land which the government acquired had been scrutinised by the revenue officials too.
