Congress seeks judicial probe

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress has demanded a judicial probe into the Attappady tribal land alienation issue. The party has also come out against the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for defending the windmill company by �misquoting some of the provisions of the Kerala Scheduled Tribes (Restriction of Transfer of Lands and Restoration of Alienated Lands) Act, 1999.

Addressing a press conference here, Congress Legislature Party secretary Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who brought up the issue in the Assembly, said the Minister for Electricity and Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Communities A.K. Balan cannot evade responsibility on this issue. The 1999 Act provides protection only for agriculture and not for industrial uses and the CPI(M) State committees hasty and premature responses even before the Chief Secretarys Committee began work can be seen only as an attempt to bail out the windmill company, Suzlon, he said.

Palakkad District Collector K.V. Mohan Kumar had, in his report, clearly brought out the extent of land alienation in Attappady. He said some of the members of the Chief Secretarys Committee had failed to take any action when complaints of land alienation came up before them in their official capacities.