Idukki: A D Johnson, a leader of the Schedule Tribe Co-ordination Council, who was evicted from the 1.32 acres of land he was holding without a title deed at Chinnakanal after revenue officials claimed he owned land in Idukki village, has begun a protest demanding officials to show him the said property.
Johnson said that he and his family were evicted from the Chinnakanal land near the Powerhouse on November 24 by the special task force set by the state government on the orders of the High Court.
“The government officials, who hold a grudge against me, claimed I am a government official and that I own 1.5 acres of land in Maniyaramkudy in Idukki village. Based on this report by the village officer and project officer of the Tribal Department, they got a favourable order from the High Court," he said.
"I want officials to show me the land they claim I own in Idukki village," he said. "This is why I started my protest in front of the Idukki Village Office on Tuesday. Revenue officials here are clueless about the said land,” Johnson said.
"I don't have a house or land. But I am ready to construct a house on the property that the officials say I possess," he added.
He said that his organisation had taken up the cause of landless tribal people since the 1990s and had been at the forefront of various protests in Idukki. “We were instrumental in finding out 1,490 acres of land that can be distributed among tribals in Panthadikkalam and Chinnakkanal areas. This was a setback for encroachers and the officials who backed them. This was why I was thrown out of the land I was holding in both these places,” said Johnson.
Johnson said missionaries converted his ancestors to Christianity more than a century ago and his family had lived in the tribal hamlets of Moonilavu in Kottayam and Moolamattam in Idukki. “My elder son is a Class four employee with the agriculture department at Thodupuzha, my daughter is a homemaker and my youngest son is a court assistant. My wife Lizy Johnson had worked on daily wages as a sweeper in two IHRD institutions in Idukki. However, the revenue officials claim were all are government employees,” Johnson said.
He said he owned three cents of land in Maniyaramkudy, which his brother A D Mani given him. “I had built a small house on this land. But I sold it two decades ago to meet the expense of my daughter's wedding. The Idukki Tahsildar who spoke to me after I began the protest said that they would give me three cents of land. But I rejected this offer,” Johnson added.
“I did talk to him after he started his protest. I will also report his case to the district collector. I have sought three to four days to sort out his issues and requested to him to withdraw the protest,” said Idukki Tahsildar Diksy Francis.
It is to be noted that there was a direction from the High Court in connection with the ongoing eviction drive that residents without an alternative house should not be evicted.
