Wayanad, Tuesday 31 August 2010: The Six-month-old land agitation by the Adivasi’s in Wayanad district is moving towards a peaceful end. 99 families who have settled at Vellaram Kunnu began eliminating of their sheds from Tuesday morning.

Though the district administration had planned to use police force to remove the sheds, the idea was dropped considering protest from the agitators.

The Adivasi’s wanted the huts to be removed by themselves. The agitators would later take out a march from the land thus ending the seven-month-old struggle. Adivasi Kshema Samithi leader NK Saseendran informed that rice needed to all the families for one month would be supplied free of cost.

Earlier report

The Adivasi Kshema Samithi has decided to call off its six-month-old agitation for tribal land rights in Wayanad district. The Samithi took a decision in this regard after its leaders met Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Monday.

As part of their agitation for land, tribespeople, under the aegis of the AKS, had encroached upon private estates in Wayanad district and erected huts. The meeting was held in the backdrop of a High Court directive to evict encroachers on the disputed land in Wayanad before August 31.

CPM district secretary and Samara Sahaya Samithi convener C.K. Saseendran told reporters that the AKS was calling off the agitation temporarily as the Chief Minister had promised to take steps within three months to retrieve the land “illegally” possessed by private parties and distribute it to landless tribal people.

“In Wayanad district alone, private landowners illegally hold 2,845 acres of land,” he said. The decision to call off the agitation would be announced at a meeting of the AKS in Wayanad on Tuesday, he added. “We had sought a meeting with the Chief Minister to explain to him personally the plight of the landless tribespeople,” Saseendran said.

(With news agency inputs)