Declaring war on the Tatas, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan today led an eviction task force in Munnar during a heavy downpour, personally pulling down boards of Tata Tea Ltd and replacing them with state government boards.

Promising to “reclaim every bit of government land” from the company in the hill resort, Achuthanandan said he would “stop at nothing” until his government took back over 50,000 acres. The land, he alleged, had been grabbed by the Tatas.

After segregating ecologically sensitive land, the rest of the reclaimed land will be forked out to landless labourers and the homeless poor, he said, describing the drive as “a historic initiative” to bring to Munnar the state’s 37-year-old land reforms programme.

Achuthanandan warned the Tatas that if they tried to obstruct the government bid through courts, the tea company may be left with no land at all. “The government will consider taking back the leased land as well as that the Tatas possess if they try to hinder this effort through the court or by other means,” he said.

If the government pulls this off, the Tatas are likely to lose almost half the land in their control. A senior Tata Tea source, however, said that the company was all set to take the issue to court immediately. “There is absolutely no justification for what is going on,” the source said.

A company advisor said they had nothing to do with the 1119 acres of land that the CM and his official set out to “recapture”.

... contd.