Hundreds of CPM workers, trucked into the area, on Monday destroyed the huts the tribals had set up and forced them to retreat to a neighbouring hilltop, where they now huddle refusing to go away. The CPM men have fenced off huge pieces of the land and have already begun constructing their own huts and sheds there.

An all-party mediation meeting called by the Munnar Additional District Magistrate (ADM) late in the evening to resolve the issue that threatened to become a big embarrassment for the LDF Government. If the opposition Congress alleged parallels with Nandigram in today’s incidents, the CPI is none too pleased either as the revenue portfolio is held by its leader K P Rajendran.

At the meeting, it was resolved that both the CPM and tribal encroachers would move out of the encroached Chinnakkanal land within 48 hours. The meeting saw heated altercations between workers of the CPI and CPM men. The district officials warned of legal action unless the encroachers left within the next two days.

The tribal representatives at the meeting agreed to move from the encroached land after officials conveyed a government promise to measure and hand over the land they were eligible for beginning tomorrow.

Trouble began last fortnight after the pro-tribal outfit, the Adivasi Rehabilitation Council, occupied the land that the Government had leased to Hindustan Newsprint Ltd. They demanded that the Government hand over the land, for which they had been given title deeds in 2003, when A K Antony was chief minister. They dispersed after local revenue officials assured that this would be done.

But with nothing appearing to happen, the tribals regrouped and went into the land again, building little huts and vowing to start farming from next week. A day later, the CPM began deploying its ranks to the area, tearing down the tribal huts and putting up their own, erecting fences and planting party flags all over the grabbed land.

While the CPM state leadership, which is busy at its party state secretariat meet, has yet to either disown or endorse this land grab, local CPM leaders allege that the tribals were being used as a front by “foreign-funded NGOs” to grab government land for themselves, and have vowed to bring in its own “landless tribals” there.

This is despite the fact that many of the agitating tribals are carrying three-year-old government land titles issued to them. Though the CPM is leading from the front in driving them out, local sources say other political parties too are in the background.

“They are trying to create another Nandigram here,” alleges AICC secretary Kodikkunnil Suresh. Both Suresh and Opposition leader Oommen Chandy today alleged that the CPM was doing this for the powerful land mafia in Munnar.

The CPI too expressed its displeasure. A fuming Rajendran today said that all encroachers on government land, irrespective of who, will be thrown out. Rajendran conceded that the tribals had encroached on government land only because they were not given their promised land. “They were given only pieces of paper making them land owners, but not a morsel was actually given to them. We will immediately correct that,” he said.