KALPETTA: The more than 6,000 landless tribal families of Wayanad district have pinned their hope on the LDF government and Mr C.K. Saseendran, the CPM district secretary elected from Kalpetta constituency, the crusader of the cause.
Mr Saseendran came to the limelight through series of agitations for land by the landless tribals. The Adivasi Kshema Samithy (AKS) led by him has been instrumental in preventing the saffronisation of tribals in Wayanad district since early 1990s.
Mr Saseendran told Deccan Chronicle that the issue of the land would be sorted out soon. “It would be my first priority as I have been with them in their agitation for land all these years”, he added. “We know where the land is and we know who are the needy. With the LDF regime taking shape in state, I hope the government mechanism would help us to ensure land for the needy”, he added.
Even before the launch of Muthanga struggle in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in 2003 by Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha led by C.K. Janu, Mr Saseendran led thousands of landless tribal families to the vested forest land when UDF was in power.
Though the UDF government evicted the tribal families from the reserve forest which ended in the death of a tribal and a policeman, the tribal encroachers of AKS still lives in the land. The LDF that government came to power in 2006 distributed title deeds to more than a thousand tribal families in the vested forest land. Though many projects were mooted to identify the land for the landless, none of them hit the target.
