Tribal agitation for land intensified

The agitation for land by tribes people in Wayanad has been intensified after a gap of one year.

A group of tribesmen under the aegis of the Kerala Adivasi Sangh, an outfit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, have claimed rights to vested forestland at Idikkara, near Thalappuzha, under the Begur division of the North Wayanad forest division. The agitators put up huts at the site on Sunday morning.

Nearly 100 tribal families from Mananthavady taluk claimed their rights to the land as part of the second phase of the land agitation. Close to 150 members of the Sangh had claimed their rights to the land on May 9, 2012. However, they were evicted from the land later.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Minister for Tribal Welfare P.K. Jayalakshmi had assured the Sangh at a discussion in Thiruvananthapuram in June last that all landless tribespeople would be given land before April 30. Measures would be expedited for the purpose, P.R. Vijayan, district unit president of the organisation, told

The Hindu . However, the government was yet to keep its promise, he said.

Moreover, three years ago, the government had handed over Rs.50 crore to the district administration to purchase land for distributing it to the landless tribesmen.