THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Monday slammed the government over restrictions on construction of houses in Munnar. Chennithala said the poor farmers should be permitted to construct houses and be given title deeds. “We are demanding that poor farmers who toil on their land and earn a living, should be allowed to construct houses on their land. The government’s wrong policies have created a huge problem for the poor farmers,” he said.
The opposition leader alleged that the resort mafia which had encroached upon government land were running their resort business and those who had taken over government land by creating fake land documents, were facing no problem. However, those wanting to construct a house legally were at the receiving end.
Chennithala alleged that the government had failed to apply pressure on the Centre and Kasturirangan Committee to accept Kerala’s suggestion to exempt areas inhabited by people from the stringent EFL and ESA norms. Even on the question of title deed distribution, the LDF government had failed completely. “During UDF regime we could give title deeds to 45,000 people. But the present government had distributed less than 14,000," he said.
The farmers are not being allowed to cut the trees in their land and sell which is their right. Prices of rubber, pepper and cardamom had come down drastically. Instead of finding solution to these problems the chief minister and revenue minister were trying to mislead the people, he said.
Chennithala said the farmers in Idukki district were facing the heat from forest officials, revenue officials and wild animals making their lives miserable. However, the government was not even willing to discus their issues. Kerala Congress (M) chief K.M. Mani said poor farmers were facing problems in constructing houses in eight villages in Munnar. There was no problem when the UDF was ruling the state. The LDFgovernmet has not taken any steps to mitigate their problems.
