http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Pioneer/400x60/0
Chengara: HC gives State Govt three months for eviction Pioneer News Service | Kochi The Kerala High Court on Thursday gave three months more for evicting the thousands of Adivasi, Dalit and other backward classes people agitating for land and livelihood in an estate in Chengara, Pathanakthitta. The order was passed on a request from the Kerala Government for more time for evicting the agitators. Considering a petition filed by Harrison Malayalam Plantations, which claimed that the agitators were camping in its estate, seeking eviction of the agitators, a Division Bench of Justice K Balakrishnan Nair and Justice PN Raveendran said no more time than three months could be allowed for evicting the agitators. The three month-time was from March 6, the court explained. More than 10,000 landless people, including old men and women and children, from various areas have been on an agitation in the hills of Chengara from August 4, 2007 demanding land and means "to live like human beings". Discussions held last week between Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan and leaders of the Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi, which is spearheading the agitation, had collapsed as both sides stuck to their positions. The Government had submitted an affidavit stating that any effort to evict the agitators would result in bloodshed. It also said that discussions were on with the agitators to end the stir amicably. The Government also submitted that it did not want to use force for such matters. The court dismissed the request of Harrison Malayalam Plantations to evict the agitators immediately. It said that priority was for settling the issue through a consensus with the active participation of the Government. Any other action would have to wait till such measures were tested. Earlier, the court had asked the State Government to evict the agitators from the estate within seven days on March 1 with the conditions that there should be no bloodshed of use of force but this deadline could not be met by the State machinery. Thousands of police personnel, assisted by scores of medical and paramedical hands had tried to enter the estates where the agitators were holding their stir on March 4, but the effort turned futile after the determined people threatened to commit suicide en masse if any such attempt was made. More than 10,000 people have been staying in about 800 temporary sheds erected in the 600-hectare estate for the last seven months in the hills of Chengara. They have vowed not to move from the hills unless and until their demands for land and livelihood were met. However, the Government has not shown any signs of giving in to the pressure. The Government's position is that it would allot land for all landless people but the strategy of pressure would not succeed. In the discussions last week, the Chief Minister had reportedly spoken in a threatening language to the representatives of the agitators saying that any action to settle the issue would start only after the agitation was called off. But Samyuktha Vedi president Lhaha Gopalan said they would prefer to fall victims to the police bullets to leaving the estate as they had no place else to go. The Vedi holds that they are not agitating in land belonging to Harrison Malayalam Plantations. It alleges that the Government is trying to mislead the court and the people that the land belongs to the company. It says that a proper survey would prove the particular land does not belong to it, they say. The Government and the CPI(M) that heads it have taken a position that the agitation was being led by some vested interests and not by the landless people. While CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan is convinced that the agitators are getting foreign support, Chief Minister Achuthanandan holds that there were "other forces" behind the stir. Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan says that the Government would probe the sources of resources for the struggle and SC/ST Welfare Minister AK Balan is firm that the pressure tactics and suicide threats would not succeed in defeating the Government's will.
