Tamil Nadu
Sangam wants lands restored to Dalits
Staff Reporter
Undertakes 40-km padayatra and submits memorandum to District Revenue Officer
Seeking justice: Members of the Tamilnadu Vivasayigal Sangam squatted
near the Collector's chamber in Krishnagiri on Thursday demanding
proper reply from the Collector. —
KRISHNAGIRI: Tamilnadu Vivasayigal Sangam affiliated to Communist
Party of India (Marxist) undertook a 40-km padayatra and submitted a
memorandum to District Revenue Officer (DRO) P. Prabhakar here on
Thursday urging the district administration to retrieve lands
belonging to Dalits in Reddipatti village. P. Shanmugam, State
Secretary of the Sangam led the padayatra.
As they were not satisfied with the response, the Sangam members
squatted near the Collector's chamber.
Mr. Shanmugam also urged the district administration to retrieve the
lands from caste Hindus at Ittikal Agaram village and Vasanthapalli.
Earlier, the yatra commenced from Reddipatti village on Wednesday and
reached Krishnagiri via Thattakkal, Kaveripattinam on Thursday
evening. The sangam said about 500 acres in Reddipatti were cultivated
by poor Dalits for more than 50 years.
These lands were categorised in the revenue records as 'Thotti
Uzhiyam', distributed during the British rule. The village Reddipatti
is situated between SIPCOT in Bargur and Vanipatti Lake. Most of these
lands are rainfed tracts and uplands and farmers used to cultivate
only dry crop.
Migration
As a result, many Dalit families were not economically sound. Many
farmers migrated to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to earn their
livelihood.
It is alleged that a certain Chettiyar familyruled the villagefor over
50 years. During the period, the Chettiyar family exploited the
Dalitsand surreptitiously transferred their lands to Chettiyar family
in 1985 with the connivance of revenue officials.
As the Dalits did not have the money or muscle power to fight the
Chettiyars they kept quiet all these years. Those who showed grit to
stand up to the might of the Chettiyar family were threatened by the
Chettiyars' goondas or tortured by the police and were thrown out of
the lands they were cultivating.
A Dalit A. Duraisamysubmitted many memoranda to the government urging
it to cancel the illegal pattas given to the Chettiyar family.
In 2001 the then district collector of the combined Dharmapuri
district K. Balachandran directed the Revenue Divisional Officer to
inquire into the alleged scamand file a report in 30 days. But the
Chettiyar family managed to block the inquiry.
After the bifurcation of Krishnagiri district, Mr. Duraisamy submitted
a memorandum to the Krishnagiri RDO on November 11, 2005. An inquiry
was conducted on April 5, 2006. Meanwhile, Mr. Duraisamy died in June
2006.
After the demise of Mr. Duraisamy, the Chettiyar family started
selling the lands cultivated by him, it was alleged. More than 300
families live in this village.
Some of the Dalits told that they could not get the information about
the `Thoti Uzhiyam" land through RTI.
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