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.

... contd.