Perambalur Dalits 'easy pickings' as Raja aides acquired land
Gopu Mohan Posted online: Mon Dec 20 2010, 09:31 hrs
Naranamangalam (Perambalur) : With A Raja stepping down as Telecom
minister, a group of villagers in his hometown, half of them Dalit,
have come forward alleging that their lands were usurped by a real
estate firm, Green House Promoters, headed by an associate of the DMK
leader, using influence and intimidation.
Around 60 Dalit villagers, of the total 160 whose land was allegedly
forcibly acquired, are now listing out their names as well as details
of their land holdings, seeking action. The 160 villagers claim to
have received between Rs 65,000 and Rs 3.5 lakh an acre for land —
much less than the government's guideline price of Rs 4.35 lakh and a
pittance compared to the Rs 15-18 lakh per acre that the company
apparently paid the agents for an acre (the actual price is as yet
unclear).
The land in question is among the most productive in the region, with
the lemon grown here earning a special margin at markets in nearby
towns. Corn, groundnut, onion and paddy were some of the other crops
that the farmers cultivated till about three years ago — when tyre
major MRF started scouting for land to set up a Rs 900 crore
greenfield plant.
When first approached, most of the farmers rejected the offer. That is
when, farmers say, agents of Green House Promoters, run by A M Sadhick
Batcha and others close to Raja, including his elder brother and
nephews, entered the picture in mid-2007.
By early next year, Green House had completed the purchase of 600
acres — a task governments find difficult to accomplish. A couple of
cases where they failed — a little over 16 acres in all — the
government acquired the land (a high court bench dismissed a petition
against acquisition by one of the aggrieved parties last week).
Most of it was then handed over to MRF by February 2008. The seller
was Batcha, holding an irrevocable power of attorney on behalf of the
original owners, the mostly-illiterate farmers of Naranamangalam.
The agents also continued to keep 161 acres, whose price is set to
appreciate when the factory becomes fully operational.
"Forget the DMK's line of defence on the spectrum scandal about Raja
being a Dalit. It was the Dalit farmers who were targeted first by his
men, and they were the ones who received the least amount for their
land," says village vice-president S Selladurai, himself a Dalit.
Collector M Vijayakumar says the district administration has ordered
an inquiry by the district revenue officer (DRO) and Superintendent of
Police. The DRO will scrutinise the documents for forgery, misuse of
power of attorney, or sale of land using only a sale agreement.
"However," Vijayakumar adds, "if the documents are found to be proper,
the correctional powers of revenue and registration departments will
be limited. We have our limitations in such an agreement between
private parties when there is nothing to show any acts of illegality."
In Naranamangalam, after the setbacks to Raja and company, voices are
growing louder. A feeble, old man recounts how he was made to
surrender 1.90 acres for Rs 70,000 per acre. Marudamuthu, too, is a
Dalit. So is Perumal, who lost 1.75 acres, and K Selvaraj, who once
had an acre of agricultural land.
Agents, including Senthil Murugan and Selvaraj and their superior
Subbudu alias Subramanian — an aide of Batcha who was raided and
questioned by the CBI last week — later approached others with the
offer of a better price than what was paid to the Dalits, plus a job,
when the factory came up.
According to villagers, the "sugar coating" just hid threats to do
physical harm and foist police cases, and even a warning that if Green
House failed, the government would directly acquire the land giving
them peanuts.
Incidentally, before becoming Batcha's man, Senthil Murugan, hailing
from the same area, was a reporter with a vernacular weekly. Residents
here say he organised a protest against the land deals when the
villagers were first approached. But one day he returned as an agent
of Green House Promoters, and soon joined a paper close to the ruling
camp.
R Senthil Kumar is among those who claims to have been "extorted" into
parting with land. He says that days after he rejected the offer, he
was arrested under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. "The
charge was that I abused a Dalit youth, though my quarrel with him was
over some money he owed me. I was told that I could escape only if I
agreed to sell my three-and-a-half-acre property. They were able to
scare my mother and sister, who forced me to sell it," Kumar says.
Alleging that officials had to be involved, he points out that as soon
as he gave in, he was released and taken straight from prison to the
Chettikulam sub-registrar's office, where the property documents were
signed after 9 pm — way beyond the working hours of the office and
staff.
Paramasivam and his wife Thavamani were slightly better, or so they
thought, as they got Rs 5 lakh for their two acres. Hours after they
had got the money, they had some visitors late in the night. "At
around 11 pm, about 10 persons came in two vehicles and took away appa
and amma . They said we were given extra money for the land and
forcefully took back Rs 1.5 lakh," says their daughter Thamaraiselvi.
N Chelladurai, the district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Vyavasayigal
Sangam (a farmers' association of the CPM) says this was just one way
Raja and his men made money off land.
The former MP from Perambalur runs a social organisation named after
his parents, the Andimuthu Chinnapillai Charitable Trust, which has
come to own large tracts of land across the region. "To much fanfare,
the trust announced donating tiny portions of land to the government
for setting up a medical college, an arts college and a polytechnic.
This earned him accolades on one side, even as it covertly increased
the price of the surrounding land — all owned by the trust," says
Chelladurai.
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