The Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha (AGM) in association with Irulam Bhoo Samara Samiti is preparing to intensify agitations in protest against the alleged apathy of successive governments in providing promised land to the landless tribal families involved in the Muthanga agitation.
AGM leader M. Geethanandan told The Hindu that his organisation had resumed land agitation by erecting huts on Mariyanad coffee estate near Irulam in the district since May 31 demanding land disbursement to the tribal families.
The government had allotted one acre of the 235 acres of coffee plantation, each to 65 families on the Mariyanad estate at Pambra under the Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) in 2016. But the government could not disburse land in a time-bound manner after the estate workers prevented land survey. The alleged laxity on the part of the government in paying incentives to estate workers had provoked them.
However, the issue is yet to be sorted out amicably, and the 65 families are still continuing as landless people, Mr. Geethanadan said.
Though the government had put up signboards on the estate saying that land had been allotted to tribal families involved in the Muthanga agitation, successive governments and the Forest department failed to provide land, he said. It had resulted in looting of cash crops such as coffee and pepper from the estate with the support of a few Forest officials and former estate workers for the past 18 years, he alleged.
Representatives of various organisations plan to take out a march to the collectorate to express solidarity with the tribal agitators on June 20. They will also visit the land at Mariyanad after the march, he said.
Close to 400 members of 100 landless tribal families have been participating in the agitation by clearing undergrowth and erecting huts on the land. The agitation will be intensified in the coming days if the government fails to address the agitators’ concerns, he said.
