Land and house for 1,432 families not a bad deal

By O.J.George

The settlement of Chengara land grab stir today at the behest of the state government, the Opposition and the agitating families is a sign of the peaceful means of finding solution to a vexed problem.

The agitation by Sadhujana Samyuktha Samithi ( Joint Council of the Poor) led by Laha Gopalan has completed more than two years at the Chengara estate of the Harrison company.

The original demand of the strikers was to provide them five acres of land each and the essence of the argument was that they should be able to find livelihood from the plot of land.

The government has made it clear that it would not be possible as it was not holding much of vacant land.

There were 1,738 families on the Chengara venue, of whom the government identified 1,432 families as landless. As many as 306 families had a little bit of land of their own.

The government would give one acre of land to the Scheduled Tribes each, for that is the land distribution policy. For the Scheduled Castes, the allotment would be 50 cents each and others up to 25 cents each.

Housing assistance of Rs 1.25 lakh to the STs, Rs one lakh to the SCs and Rs 75,000 to others would also be provided.

The package would be implemented within three months, according to Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan.

Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy has pointed out that government should give compensation to the families of 13 persons who had died on the agitation venue at Chengara.

Of late, there has been signs of discord among those settled in the agitational venue. Very many interested parties had crept into the crowds of the poor people.

As usual vested interests had put ballooning hopes among the poor agitationists, knowing fully well that it would not be possible to fetch so much.

Laha Gopalan, expectedly, pointed out that he was accepting the package without satisfaction. He was calling off the stir on account of great pressure exerted on him.

If he did not accept the package now, the venue would end up like Nandigram.

Suffice it to say, it would be impossible to give them five acres of land. That would have been self-income generating. But no government can give so much.

People not aware of the complex problems involved in land provision would argue that the estate lands should be divided and given over to the landless. Taking a cent of the estates would have resulted in a century of delay due to court proceedings and otherwise.

There should be give and take in all forms of agitations, pressure to the contrary notwithstanding. Let all of us be relieved that it has not created an infamous Nandigram.