Govt. fails to keep promises on tribal land issue

By G. Prabhakaran

PALAKKAD, JULY 9. It is exactly one year since the inauguration of the State-level distribution of land by the Chief Minister, Mr. E. K. Nayanar, to the tribals who lost it due to alienation at Agali in Attappady.

The Chief Minister, the Revenue Minister and the Social Welfare Minister jointly declared on this day last year that all tribals who lost their land due to alienation and all the landless tribals would be given `cultivable land' within a year. A comprehensive tribal development project for the State was also declared at this meeting.

But even after a year, these declarations still remain in paper. The tribals continue to face starvation and all sorts of exploitation, including sexual exploitation of their school children.

The Central Government had accused the State Government of not spending the funds allotted by the Centre for the development of tribals. The Centre said that it had allotted Rs. 25 crores last year to the State for tribal development.

Thus there were no sincere efforts on the part of the Government to implement the schemes that were suitable for the survival of this ethnic group.

The demand of the tribal community to restore the same land as per the Kerala Scheduled Tribes (Restriction on Transfer of Lands and Restoration of Alienated Lands) Act of 1975 was not accepted by the State Government. However, the first amendment brought by them was rejected by the President of India and the Kerala High Court. The second amendment too was stayed by the court, which is yet to be vacated by the State Government even after a year.

When the court ordered to implement the original Act of 1975, the tribals were happy that they would get back their original land. The settlers were set to lose the occupied land. But some sort of a reconciliation was mooted by local leaders. As per the settlement, the settlers agreed to share half of their possession with the tribals. The tribals too agreed as they were not ready for a confrontation.

When things looked moving towards a solution in Attappady, came the new amendment, which unsettled everything. Suddenly the settlers knew that the Bill had given legitimacy to their land.

Even after the new law was made by the LDF Government, the tribals requested the Government to provide them an equal extend of land in lieu of the alienated land, but near their traditional settlements.

That means, the land should be taken from the present occupants and given to the tribals at least around their settlements. Thus it is not the tribals who are to be resettled from their traditional abode but the settlers.

``We do not want all the land we lost but only part of it for our survival. We are not for evicting settlers who have real problems. In fact, there is no fight between the tribals and the settlers. It is only the vested interests and the Government who are pitting us against each other'' said Mr. Chandran of `NAMU', a tribal voluntary organisation.

Mr. Narayanan of Girijan Seva Samithi said that the State Government brought the amendment to the 1975 Act at a time when the process of restoration of land was going on as per the court orders. Some tribals had already got back their alienated land in the district. The court had earlier fixed September 30, 1996, as the last date to complete the restoration process.

The new amendment was thus brought to save the officials who had not completed the restoration as directed by the Kerala High Court earlier. To save a few officials from contempt of court or under its cover, the Government had betrayed the cause of over three lakh tribals who were subjected to inhuman exploitation for several decades'', he said.

Thus, the Government, which blocked the process of the law that went in favour of the tribals, failed to get approved the new bill as it went against the interest of the tribals, he said.

Another proposal put up by some tribal organisations of Attappady was that since crores of rupees were spent for their development, a part of it could be used to buy fertile land near their settlement. They said that the land price was so low that one can get an acre of land for Rs. 20,000. They pointed out that the land which the Government gave them in Attappady were not inhabitable or cultivable. That is why nobody occupied these lands, though it was allotted to them since 1979.

On the same land, the Government is spending huge amount for infrastructure development. The latest example being the steps taken to spend over Rs. 1 crore to cultivate tea at Varadimala in Sholayur, they alleged.

The Government had set up a Tea Growers Co-operative Society and started tea planting to rehabilitate 55 tribal families in 156 acres of land. The Revenue Minister, Mr. K. E. Ismail, while inaugurating the tea planting on July 1 at Sholayur had declared that the area would be made a township.

The Government is spending crores of rupees for constructing roads, check dams, houses, water supply schemes and electricity. The tribal organisations asks that if the Government can spent this huge amount for an area which the tribals are not interested to go due to various reasons, why can't this money be spent to buy 1,000 acres of cultivable land near their traditional settlements. This could rehabilitate 500 families or a minimum of 400 of them, they argued.

They said that with the Sholayur experiment, the Government wanted to prove that the land was cultivable. The Government had also floated another co-operative society for rehabilitating the tribals. But earlier experiments like the Sugandhagiri Project in Wayanad, the Attappady Farming Co-operative Society and Varadimala Co-operative Farms and various other goat farms in Attappady had proved to be failures. They allege that the Government wanted to continue with the failed schemes that ruined the tribals.

At the mega pattayam mela at Agali, 225 acres of land were distributed to 76 families from a 450-acre surplus land which the Government had. In fact, most part of this land was distributed to 221 tribal families in 1979 itself. But none of the tribal families went to stay there, except an Irula tribal family, because the area lacked water and other amenities. In fact, the Kottathara area is in the rain shadow area and monsoon rains are not available here. The tribal organisations wanted to know why nobody lived in this land.

They allege that as usual the Government was implementing various schemes spending crores for the so-called development of tribals. But the most important problem of the tribals - their alienated land - evades a lasting solution. Unless the tribals were given fertile lands near their settlement, the issue may not find a lasting solution in the near future, they alleged.

The information trickling down the tribal hills of Attappady is that the situation there is explosive and some extremist groups have allegedly become active in the area. This could make the area volatile and threaten the peaceful atmosphere of an area which is as big as Alappuzha district.

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