COIMBATORE:Protesting the alleged grabbing of their land in Nallorpathy by Karunya university, tribal residents of the region on Tuesday night forced the revenue department officials to lodge a police complaint by detaining an earthmover, which the protestors alleged was working in the cover of darkness in the government-owned land.
The residents had submitted a complaint to Collector Archana Patnaik a few weeks ago but to no avail.
Police too confirmed to Express that the college was using heavy equipment under the cover of darkness to carry out the land-grab surreptitiously.
On Tuesday evening, as an excavator was entering the land in order to start work, a 30-strong group of residents, surrounded the excavator and staged a protest.
Officials from the Revenue Department, as well as police from the Alandurai station, rushed to the spot and seized the excavator and attempted to take the driver in for questioning. However, the man managed to give a slip to the police.
Speaking to Express, a police source said that the Village Administration Officer, Duraisamy, had lodged a complaint with the police against the driver of the vehicle. Subsequently, a case was registered under sections 447 (criminal trespass), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the IPC.
Pon Chandran, a member of the Aam Admi Party, said that for the last few months, the government ‘poromboke’ land just outside the boundaries of the university was being ‘sanitized’ using heavy equipment. The university officials allegedly tried to change the natural course of a stream flowing through the area, but also tried to restrict the flow through the stream, which is locally referred to as ‘Masa Irumbu Pallam.’
Locals at the protest site told Express that over the last few months, the university had ‘destroyed’ the vegetation in the area, which was being used by around 120 local families to graze their cattle besides collecting firewood from the tract.
However, the registrar of the university said that the locals were protesting the demarcation of the college property, which was being fenced. “Government surveyors had laid survey stones, one of which came very close to the stream, leading to the protests,” he said.
He also denied allegations that the university was making concerted efforts to grab the land of tribals in the area. Another college official, when asked as to why work was being carried out on the stream,said that the water body was in an area where they wanted to put up a fence marking out the college.