CHENNAI: DMK ally VCK is planning to raise the long-standing Panchami land issue in the Budget session of Assembly expected to begin later this month. The Panchami lands are vast acres of land given to Dalits during the British era, but most of which are encroached and never handed over to the Dalits, despite decades of struggle.
VCK, a party which works for welfare of Dalits and DMK have got representation in the Assembly after a long gap and this time the former aims to make use of it and raise the issue. VCK floor leader Sinthanai Selvan told Express, “We have sent a question on the retrieval of Panchami lands. We hope it will be answered in the upcoming Budget session. We will take steps to bring a private member resolution on this issue if there is no possibility to get an answer for our question on the issue.”
The retrieval of the Panchami lands and distributing it to the Dalits is expected to bring a sea of change for the downtrodden community. One of the BJP’s national executive member Tada Periyasamy, working on the issue for long, said, “As per a Madras High Court judgement, a total of 12 lakh acres of lands were given to Dalits in the State during the British rule. But, most of them have been encroached. It is evident from the fact that as per the State government data in 2011, the State has only 1.09 lakh acres of land under the Panchami lands, of which, a total of 17,159 acres are encroached by other community people.”
Despite the State government accepting that 17,159 acres of land are encroached by other community people, no action have been taken so far to retrieve them, he said. At least three commissions were formed to address the issue. But, they achieved nothing much, said Periyasamy.
Meanwhile, VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan handed over a representation to Chief Minister MK Stalin on June 25. He had appealed to the State government to take action to retrieve Panchami lands and cited earlier government orders and high court judgements that upheld the rights of Dalits over Panchami lands. He had also urged to strengthen the high-level committee, which was constituted in 2015, to collect the details of the Panchami lands and encroachments.