ATTAPPADI: The UDF Government had announced the Attappadi Package in August 2011 to return to the adivasis the land acquired by Suzlon to set up windmills. Now six months down the line, the investigation into the land deals has identified only three adivasi families in the controversial survey numbers housing the windmills, according to sources.An Adivasi, Chandrasekharan, who is the legal heir to the property of E P Chathan, says that middlemen have usurped five acres of his land by paying a pittance and they resold it to Suzlon. The Vigilance authorities, who had pored over the papers at the village office on receipt of his application, had traced the document in the registration department which shows that Chathan had indeed sold the land in 1985.“Under the Kerala Restrictions on Transfer by and Restoration of Land to Scheduled Tribes Act 1999, all land transactions executed between January 1, 1960 and January 24,1986 exceeding two hectares were invalid.Since 2.47 acres constitute one hectare, the purchase of five acres of land from Chathan becomes invalid. The buyer had purchased six cents more and, therefore, Chathan’s claim is justified, says one of the officials of the Vigilance Department to Chandrasekharan. Another tribal was Ramakrishnan, the ooru moopan of Varagampadi ooru.His demand was that Suzlon had drawn an electric line through his land in survey number 1275 part and he wanted compensation for it. His father V S Maruthan owned two acres of land and had paid taxes till 2000. He produces tax receipts but does not have any other document. Suzlon, which laid power lines from the wind mill to the sub-stations of Agali and Kavundikal on his land, had paid Rs 24,000 to him by way of an SBI cheque. But no registrations have been executed. Deputy superintendent of police Satheeshan, who was meeting the adivasi family members who had lost their land in Vargamapadi ooru, told Express: “We want to submit our report by the end of April . We hope to identify at least 15 adivasi families who had owned these lands by then. There was an A&B register in the village office based on the preliminary survey held in 1982 and 83. The report of the survey was handed over to the village office in 1998. As per the survey, the lands have been classified as ‘adivasi,’ ‘moopilsthanam’ or forest. Of the six villages in Attappadi, only the lands in Kallamala village have been resurveyed by the Revenue Department and we were trying to locate the land based on the A&B register.’’ “The re-survey of the lands in other five villages has not been done due to the stay from the Kerala High court based on the objections raised by Suzlon. Therefore, the identification of the land of the adivasis will take time”, said Sub-Collector (Ottapalam ) A Koushigan under whom the area falls.“We will sit on an indefinite relay strike here till we get back our land which lies in survey number 1275 (part one and two) in Kottathara village,’’ said president of the Attappadi Samrakshana Samithi Sukumaran, who is in the pandal put up in the wind farm site. He said that in part one, there were 182 acres and in part 2 there were 42 acres which together constitute 224 acres. The land of 42 acres in part two was forest land . Of the 182 acres in part 1 , 146 acres of land belong to 36 Adivasi families as per the records of the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP). Therefore, there was only 36 acres of revenue land in this survey number . Sarjan Realities which purchased land on behalf of Suzlon has registered 101 acres in this survey number and another half a dozen buyers have also registered another 400 acres of land in this survey number. It is the duty of the Revenue Department now to show these lands to us, he said.“We will sit here till we get our lands back,’’ says Rajamma , a tribal who is sitting in the pandal and adds that her family owned 10 acres of land in this survey number. And Kannamma, Kaliamma and Vanaja shake their heads in unison seated beside her.Meanwhile, Vaisakh, the civil police officer of the Sholayur police station, who is posted to see who were the visitors to the pandal, comes and overhears what the tribals were telling this reporter.
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