Centre grabbing coastal people’s land to hand it over to corporates, says Meena Kandasamy

Writer-activist Meena Kandasamy has dubbed the Union government’s ₹57,991-lakh-crore Sagarmala programme, purportedly for the development of the Indian coastline and the maritime sector, as “a ploy to grab coastal people’s land and hand it over to corporate honchos.”

She was inaugurating the 24-hour hunger strike organised by the Chellanam-Kochi Janakeeya Vedhi here in protest against the worsening sea incursion and the alleged role of the Cochin Port Trust in it while demanding a permanent solution to the problem. The hunger strike also marked the fifth anniversary of the movement that was launched on October 28, 2019.

The Punargeham project, which was conceived for the relocation of 18,600 families along the coastline, was more of an eviction rather than relocation, she alleged. People’s land is being grabbed by paying merely ₹10 lakh with the rider that interest will have to be paid if the house is not built using that money in a year. Such an anti-people policy was not befitting a Communist government and hopefully the Chief Minister would seriously reconsider it, she said.

Ms. Kandasamy slammed the Centre for allegedly running roughshod over the federal principles in denying funds to Kerala, which, she said, had disrupted the laying of tetrapods along the sea incursion-hit 18-km coastline. “Funds are being restricted to BJP-ruled States or where the BJP allies are in power. Whether it is Kerala or Tamil Nadu, States against the BJP are being deprived of funds. In fact, Kerala is even barred from taking loans,” she said. Modi’s politics, she alleged, was about exercising economic control over hostile governments with scant respect for federalism.

Ms. Kandasamy urged the Chief Minister, who is also in charge of the Department of Climate Change, to give due importance to the issue raised by the coastal people while quoting a study, according to which Kochi was ranked fourth among the places affected by sea level rise and 5% of its land was likely to go under water in another 15 years. “A Chief Minister’s responsibility is not restricted to attracting investments and industrial development. Protecting people’s land and life is even more important. It is nothing new to the Communist ideology but is already written into it,” she said and expressed hope that as a true communist, the Chief Minister would take up the responsibility of putting an end to the exploitation of people’s land.

V.T. Sebastian, general convener of the Chellanam-Kochi Janakeeya Vedhi, presided.

Published - November 02, 2024 01:23 am IST