THENI: Hundreds of Megamalai residents staged a protest in front of the collectorate on Friday opposing the Supreme Court order which directed the state government to evict people living in over 50 villages in forest areas of Western Ghats, including Megamalai and Varsanadu.
Andipatti MLA Maharajan, Theni MP Thanga Tamilselvan, AIADMK district secretary Murukkodai Ramar, DMK district secretary Ramakrishnan and representatives of several political parties and organisations also took part in the protest.
The protesters appealed to the state government to file a review petition in the SC against the eviction order and also demanded land rights under the Forest Rights Act.
Speaking at the protest, CPM State secretary P Shanmugam objected to the SC’s observation that paramilitary forces could be deployed if the TN government failed to implement the eviction order.
“It is unprecedented to suggest the deployment of paramilitary forces against people. We strongly condemn the observation,” he said.
Further, Shanmugam said the state government should recognise that law was in favour of the people. “The state government should first have been questioned for failing to issue land titles to people who lived in these forest areas for decades. Residents are not encroachers. They are the rightful inhabitants of this land. The forest is our home. The failure to issue pattas is the government’s mistake,” he said.
