Various tribal organisations are set to launch an agitation to press their long-pending demands against those who wrested Adivasi land.
Adivasi Gotra Mahasabha State coordinator M. Geethanandan said here on Monday the tribespeople would launch their agitation by staging a satyagraha in front of the District Collectorate on October 1. Tribal families who have lost their land in Attappady and tribal activists would take part in the satyagraha.
Mr. Geethanandan said the protest would largely be to press demands such as a high-level investigation into all transactions of property marked as Adivasi land in the 1960 settlement register, an end to the “anti-tribal stand” being adopted by the police in land grab cases and proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act by the Forest department.
He said if large-scale land-grabbing had taken place in the name of migration in the 1950s and 60s, the current land-snatching was done by land mafias. Such mafias were grabbing tribal lands by faking documents and winning the support of the police and the government, he added.
“In Attappady alone, about 1,000 tribespeople have lost their land. In eastern Attappady, land mafias are grabbing tribal land by fudging documents. But in western Attappady, the Forest department is wresting the land by weakening the Forest Rights Act,” said Mr. Geethanandan.
Choriya Moopan from Vattulakki hamlet, C.J. Thankachan of the Adijana Sabha, Sholayur Mallan, Velli from Pottikkalllu hamlet, and SC/ST Samrakshana Samiti leader K. Mayandi accompanied Mr. Geethanandan.
