Kerala Tuesday said that the ongoing land grab agitation led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in Wayanad district was against tribal interests as the land in question has been earmarked for distribution among tribals.
A group of landless farmers and tribals, led by CPI(ML) activists, had Friday occupied government land at Meppadi in Wayanad, demanding that it be distributed among the landless.
'It should be suspected that this stir may have been organised by those who are against distributing land among tribals. The land now occupied by the agitators was actually earmarked to be distributed among the tribal people,' A.K. Balan, minister for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes welfare, told reporters at Kalpetta.
Kalpetta, the Wayanad district headquarters, is around 70 km east of Kozhikode.
'Out of around 350 families who have illegally occupied the government land, only around 120 families belong to the tribal community,' the minister pointed out.
Tribals make up 36 percent of the population of the hilly district of Wayanad.
'We haven't taken a decision yet on vacating the agitators from the land. The government is awaiting a report from the district collector,' he added.
The land occupied by the agitators was taken over by the government in 1970 from Harrison Malayalam plantations in the wake of land reforms. It is currently held by the state forest department.
A similar agitation for land by tribal outfit Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (AGMS) in 2003 at Muthanga in the district led to violence, resulting in the death of a tribal and a policeman.