The United Democratic Front (UDF) government is likely to find the three-and-a-half-year-old Chengara land struggle a hard nut to crack in the coming months.
The change of guard in the State has seemingly brought new hope to the Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi (SJVSV) camp at Kumbazha Estate at Chengara. Many SJVSV workers, including Vedi leader Laha Gopalan, appear to be banking on the Oommen Chandy-led government for an amicable settlement to the Chengara imbroglio. Mr. Gopalan is of the view that the UDF leaders, who always supported the Chengara land struggle, will not sideline the landless poor.
The history
The SJVSV agitation began with hundreds of Vedi workers encroaching upon the Kumbazha Estate of Harrison Malayalam Limited at Chengara on August 4, 2007, demanding five acres of land for farming and Rs.50,000 towards initial farming expenses to each landless family among them. They pitched tents on the occupied land and started tapping the rubber trees at the estate for livelihood. The Vedi leader claims that 200 hectares of land at Chengara is under SJVSV occupation.
Meanwhile, the plantation workers, rendered jobless with the encroachment, launched another agitation under the banner of the joint trade union action council.
Court directive
The Kerala High Court directed the government to clear the encroachments without bloodshed. However, the official machinery could do little. The agitators threatened to immolate themselves in the event of a police action.
Prominent socio-political leaders, including Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, V.M. Sudheeran, Govindacharya, and Mr. Chandy had visited the encroachers, expressing solidarity with them, during the past three-and-a-half years.
UDF support
Revenue Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan had led a team of Opposition MLAs to Chengara on March 16, 2008, to extend support to the encroachers.
Mr. Chandy, then the Leader of the Opposition, had inaugurated a public meeting organised by SJVSV in Pathanamthitta on April 4, 2009, in connection with the second anniversary of the ‘land struggle'. At the meeting, Mr. Chandy had said that the government should consider Chengara issue as a struggle for social justice, recover excess land, if any, in the private plantation, and distribute it among the landless poor, adhering to the laws of the land. However, Mr. Chandy had also stated that the UDF was against people taking law into their hands and encroaching properties.
Chengara Package
The previous LDF government had announced a ‘Chengara Package' and had identified 831.03 acres of land in 10 districts for distribution among the 1,495 eligible landless people at Chengara. V.S. Achuthanandan, former Chief Minister, accompanied by the then Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran, had distributed title deeds to landless families at a public function in Pathanamthitta on August 3, 2010. Of the 1,495 landless families identified at Chengara, 38 belonged to Scheduled Tribe community, 1,227 to Scheduled Caste community, and 230, to other categories, including upper castes.
Beneficiaries from the ST category were allotted one acre land each while those in the SC category got 50 cents each. Those belonging to other categories got 25 cents each.
'Unfit for habitation'
But, SJVSV leaders alleged that the allotted land was not fit for habitation or farming. Hence, majority of people had not taken possession of it. According to Mr. Gopalan, only 421 families have received the title deeds and hardly 86 of them have occupied the land.
He said not less than 1,000 landless families were still camping at Chengara, in the hope that the government would meet their demands.
Mr. Gopalan said he would visit Mr. Chandy soon in Thiruvananthapuram to submit a memorandum detailing the plight of the Vedi workers at Chengara.
Fast for rice
He also warned that the Vedi workers would launch an indefinite fast before the Mini Civil Station in Pathanamthitta, if the government failed to supply ration rice at Rs.2 a kg to the families camping at Chengara by June 25.
Chengara issue is likely to snowball into a major social issue once again, with the CPI(M) and the joint action council of trade unions supporting the plantation workers' cause, demanding immediate eviction of encroachers from estate.
