Kannur: The ‘Vayalkilikal’ will take out a long march from Keezhattoor to Thiruvananthapuram on the lines of the peasants’ march held in Maharashtra. The date will be announced at a convention in Kannur on May 5.
‘Vayalkilikal,’ the rebels who split from the CPM in support of the green cause at Keezhattoor, want to prove that the Keezhattoor agitation is one final attempt to save the wetlands and ecology of Kerala.
“We need support from all districts to make the event a success. The groundwork for the same is going on at various places,” said Mr Suresh Keezhattoor, leader of ‘Vayalkilikal.’ According to sources, the long march would expose the hypocrisy of CPM over the farmers’ issues. “It was the CPM’s farmers’ wing which organised a massive rally in Maharashtra where it does not have a strong presence. But when the same issue cropped up in Kerala, the CPM is against farmers and paddy fields,” said a CPM supporter in Kannur, who requested anonymity. The CPM failure in implementing the Conservation of Paddyland and Wetland Act of 2008 and publishing the land data bank would also be raised.
The CPM had attempted to dissuade the ‘Vayalkilikal’ from organising the long march, but didn’t succeed. Kannur district secretary P. Jayarajan himself met nine of the 11 ousted members of ‘Vayalkilikal,’ but they refused to budge.
The ‘Vayalkilikal’ too did not want to invite more ire of the party and expected the intervention of the CPM party congress, but nothing happened. Meanwhile, a team from the union ministry of environment and forest will visit Keezhattoor on May 3 to study the impact of the bypass project on environment.
