Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi has called for immediate steps by the State Government to hand over the 1.80 lakh acres of Panchami lands reportedly identified by the high level committee formed in 2015 to Adi Dravidars. It has also called for the immediate release of all prisoners who have been incarcerated for a minimum of 14 years in Tamil Nadu on former Chief Minister C. N. Annadurai’s birth anniversary on September 15.
These two demands were among the four resolutions that were passed in the party’s district secretaries meeting held on Wednesday.
“In the State of Haryana and others Vs Rajkumar @ Bittu case on August 3, 2021, Supreme Court bench consisting of judges Hemant Gupta and A.S. Bopanna said that State government has full rights to release prisoners who have completed 14 years in prison. Based on that judgment, the State Government of Tamil Nadu should release all prisoners who have completed 14 years in prisons on Arignar Anna’s birthday on September 15,” the resolution said.
The resolution also called for 1.80 lakh acres of Panchami lands reportedly identified by the high level committee (as per media reports), which consisting of three members including Revenue secretary, Adi Dravidar and Tribal welfare secretary and Land Administration secretary, that was set up in October 2015 to retrieve the lands by State Government.
The resolution said, “The High level committee was set up based on Madras High Court order on August 8 through a Government Order. The Panchami lands should be identified completely and whatever lands have been identified so far should be redistributed by the State Government.”
The resolution pointed out that while the State Government’s Backward classes list, Most Backward class list and Denotified Communities list have most castes listed by the Central government, several castes listed in the State Government’s backward class list and DNC list have been left out in the Central government’s list.
The party demanded that all the communities listed by Tamil Nadu government should be included in the Central government’s list. It also demanded that the socio-economic caste census which was undertaken by the Central government in 2011 but has not been made public should be made public immediately.
