Braving inclement weather, landless people under the aegis of the All India Krantikari Kisan Sabha (AIKKS) and the Adivasi Bharath Mahasabha (ABM) continued their indefinite agitation in front of the collectorate here on Thursday.
This is the second day of the agitation raising a slew of demands, including land for all landless families in Wayanad district.
The AIKKS and the ABM are feeder organisations of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star.
Close to 150 landless people, including tribespeople, began their struggle in front of the collectorate after they were evicted from a piece of vested forestland at Thovarimala under the Meppadi forest range in the South Wayanad Forest Division on Wednesday morning.
They said they would continue their agitation till they got an assurance from the government that each landless family would get two acres.
‘Release leaders’
Besides demanding the release of all leaders arrested in connection with the agitation they also sought the withdrawal of cases registered against the former.
Though Collector A.R. Ajayakumar assured the protesters that steps would be taken to expedite land distribution, he was told that many of the protesters were yet to figure on the official list of the landless.
Meanwhile, the Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti, an environmental organisation in the district, said the claims of the CPI(ML) Red Star on the encroached land were baseless.
Counter-claim
The semi-evergreen patch of land was not meant for the landless as the government had notified 110 ha as reserve forest in 2001. Moreover, the Forest Department was conserving it as protected land, N. Badushaw, president of the organisation, said.
Former Revenue Secretary Niveditha P. Haran had reported that 20,000 acres was under the illegal possession of corporate estates and such land should be retrieved and assigned to the landless people, he said.
