Freed labourers fall prey to land grab

ERODE:  A 55-year-old tribal from the Kermalam panchayat in Thalavadi hill area has lodged a complaint of land grab with the special cell dealing with such cases here. Kalamadan of Kalakarai told Express that he and 12 others were held in bondage by a landlord in the hills in 1970s. The authorities later rescued them and offered each of them three acres of land at Kalakalari village. Since then, they had been raising ragi, tapioca and cholam on the land.Kalamadan said since 2008, a textile trader from Erode has been preventing him from entering into his land by lodging police complaints claiming that he was a trespasser. The trader cited a document to claim that he bought the land from one Kothagiri Rajan.The tribal, who belongs to the Cholagar community, said he had tried his best to find out who sold his land to Rajan in 1994, but was unsuccesful.  As no one accepted his position regarding the land, Kalamadan lost his only property.  He said it was believed that the lands belonging to other freed bonded labourers were also bought in a similar fashion.  But they were using the land till date and have not faced a similar problem so far.  He appealed to the police officials to take steps to get back his land.   Tribal association demands probe The Tamil Nadu Tribals Association has appealed to Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to order a probe into the land dealings in Thalavadi, Bargur and Kadambur hill areas in the district to protect the interest of innocent tribals.Talking to Express, association’s Sathy Taluk Secretary S Mohankumar said only condition patta was given to Kalamadan, which means the permission of Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) was needed to sell the land. Also, it could be bought only by another tribal.He said the RDO had not give any such permission to anyone. However, the lands of 13 tribals changed hands without their knowledge. As there was no procedure of affixing photos of buyers and sellers in the documents registered in the registrar office those days, only signature or thumb impression of buyer and seller was needed. The tribals freed from bondage were illiterates. So, creating fake records was quite possible, Mohankumar said.