Encroachers Vs employees: Kerala estate standoff takes a new turn

A year later, they are still there.

“We occupied the RPG estate to pressurise (the government) on our demand for land. If the government is willing to give us land for residential and farming purpose, we are ready to vacate the estate,” says Laha Gopalan, president of the joint action forum for the agitation.

With the government not ready to concede to the demands, they erected makeshift huts and tried to make the estate a self-reliant village, putting up counters for essential commodities. Many students got enrolled in the nearby schools, while men and women went for odd jobs in the neighbourhood.

In the meantime, the estate management moved the Kerala High Court, seeking an order to direct the state government to evict the encroachers. (The encroached land is part of 1,500-hectare estate.) The estate had suffered heavy loss as tapping (extracting rubber) was obstructed. The court directed the government to evict the agitators without using force.

Police teams that rushed to the estate with the court order to clear the estate of encroachers were greeted by suicide squads. The V S Achuthanandan government did not want to take any risk. In 2003, when the then state government tried to evict tribal encroachers from Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary, one policeman was hacked to death and a tribal killed in firing.

Attempts to sort out the issue haven’t succeeded as the agitators have stuck to their demand of 5 acres for each encroacher.

Things reached a flashpoint on August 4, 2008, when the agitation completed a year. Estate employees, who have been rendered jobless after the encroachment, gathered to surround the settlement. Employees, affiliated to all political parties, blocked roads leading to the settlement.

The blockade began to hurt. The agitators were left with no food and struggled with diseases. After a week of pressure from social organizations, the estate employees eased the blockade but on Wednesday, they marched to the estate again to evict the encroachers. Police stopped their march.

“Estate workers are still going ahead with the agitation. Our march to the estate on Wednesday was part of intensifying the agitation to chase out the encroachers,” said K C Rajagopal, CPM leader and MLA, who leads the estate employees’ agitation.

If the Government failed to evict the encroachers by September 10, employees said, they would use force to evict the encroachers. According to Rajagopal, many encroachers have land elsewhere in the state and have been given the impression that this agitation would help them get five acres of land. The agitation has been funded by external forces and religious groups, he alleged. However, Gopalan dismissed the charges.

Sources said the government was not ready to agree to the conditions put forward by the encroachers. “If we concede to their demand, similar agitations would crop up across the state. We have adopted a stand to neglect this agitation. We will not interfere with this issue, which would die out soon,” said a CPM leader.

The Story So Far

Over 3,000 Dalits, under the Sadhu Jana Vimochana Munnani (Liberation Front of the Poor), encroach upon a part of the RPG Group’s rubber plantation on August 3, 2007.

They demand 5 acres of farm land from the government for each.

The court asks the govt to evict them, without using force.

Police, greeted by suicide squads, return without evicting them.

Estate employees affected by the agitation take on the protestors, cut off roads to the settlement, impose blockade.

Police stop their march to evict the encroachers on September 3, 2008.

Estate employees give September 10 as deadline, say if the government does not evict them, they will.