CHENNAI: Social Justice Minister Vanni Arasu on Monday announced in the Assembly that the state government will soon constitute a special commission to identify and facilitate the recovery of Panchami lands.
Responding to the request of CPI MLA R Marimuthu for forming a separate board for retrieving the Panchami lands, the minister said the proposed commission would be more effective than the committees constituted earlier for identifying Panchami lands and would function under the guidance of CM C Joseph Vijay.
Around 12 lakh acres of land had originally been earmarked for the Adi Dravidar community during the British rule, but only about 1.86 lakh acres remained as Panchami land at present, he said. Arasu added that several committees had earlier been constituted to identify Panchami lands, but their work had not progressed.