Chikkamagaluru: Even as the government is having a hard time dealing with tribals agitating for land in Diddalli, Kodagu district, it is facing a fresh challenge from around 15 homeless Dalit families, which pitched tents on revenue land in Seegodu village, Koppa taluk Chikkamagaluru on Sunday and refused to leave, leading to a minor scuffle and forcible eviction Wednesday evening.
Although revenue officials tried to persuade the Dalits to leave through talks, six families resisted eviction and formed a human chain to prevent the police from removing them. But they were eventually overpowered and evicted Wednesday evening. Two women were injured in the scuffle that followed and one of them, who was reportedly pregnant, was admitted to a hospital in Koppa.
Koppa Tahsildar, A L Swamy booked encroachment cases against 12 of the Dalits, but those detained were later released.
A Dalit leader from Koppa, Kowli Ramu, said the Dalits were fed up with the delay in distribution of sites they were promised and so tried to occupy the revenue land.
Claiming that as many as 3,000 applications for sites were pending approval, he said the last time sites were distributed for the poor was in the eighties. In 2004 only a few sites were distributed in the taluk, according to him.
While the Dalit families have been prohibited from entering the revenue land, Mr Ramu said they would continue their protest until they were given sites for construction of houses by the government.
“Until then, we will live under the open sky and sleep on the ground,” he declared.
