Forty one families whose lives had been in misery since their eviction in the name of development, got justice through the popular agitation led by the Solidarity Youth Movement. For the residents of the Mukkaal Cent Colony of the Kulathooppuzha Panchayath in the Kollam district, their two-decade long agony has now come to an end.?The families were exploited by the Left and Right fronts, who came to power in intervals, for their own interests. And finally they lined up behind the Solidarity as one, and earned land and pattayam of their own following strong protests.
The 96 families who were evicted for the development of the Thiruvananthapuram-Chenkotta Road on June 23, 1990 were given ? cent in a marshland on condition that they would be rehabilitated within three months. This came to be known as the Mukkaal (three-fourth) Cent Colony. All families lived in huts made for the time being. They were not able even to repair the temporary huts owing to the frequent offers of the political leaders that land would be distributed soon. In the meantime, those families of the SC/ST were taken to another place for dwelling as per the SC/ST Development Plan. The rest 41 families remained the vote-bank and milk-cows of the politicians for 17 long years.
Most of the families lived in huts, about to collapse and without the facility even for the primary needs, in the marshland where water would rise in the rainy season. The problem of the Mukkaal Cent Colony was raised with due importance in the Janasabha organised by the Solidarity in the presence of K.Raju, M.L.A. of Punaloor. The activists of the Solidarity visited the Colony on November 11, 2006, inspiring the natives for a struggle to get their rights. The people, who had come to know the aims and objectives of the organisation, lined up in unison with the Solidarity. And agitation programmes began by forming an Action Council under the patronage of the Solidarity on November 26, 2006.
After studying the problem in detail, petitions were submitted to many ranging from the Village Officer to the Revenue Minister, the Panchayat President, the M.L.A., the Taluk Development Authority, etc. by the Action Council. Then the Petitions Committee of the Legislative Assembly was approached. Reminders were also sent to the authorities at regular intervals. Owing to this, the pace of the measures was accelerated and the District Collector of Kollam issued an order on February 17, 2007, sanctioning 3.5 cents of land to each of the 41 families.
But the political leaders deliberately tried to delay the implementation of the order. Though measurement of the land began as per the order, an attempt was made to put a spanner into it. Seeing no sincere effort being made to ease the agony of the residents of the Colony, the Action Council decided to make the agitation more powerful. Petitions were given to the District Collector and the Tehsildar along with a copy of the order and immediate measures were demanded. As a result, the Collector directed the Tehsildar to complete the survey by December 31, 2007. When the Tehsildar proceeded with the measures, local C.P.I. leaders, the Panchayat President and the M.L.A. interfered in the matter and made the Taluk Surveyor go on leave.?And thus the survey was hampered.
When the residents of the Colony contacted him on phone on December 31, the M.L.A. openly said that the survey was not allowed because the Solidarity was involved. The next day, the Colony people went to the M.L.A.’s residence led by the leaders of the Solidarity and Odanavattom Vijayaprakash, convenor, Paristhithi-Manushyavakasha Ekopana Samithi.
The M.L.A. challenged to measure and buy the land if they could. The Action Council gave a last warning that the people would set up huts and live in front of the houses of the people’s representatives and that it would question in the High Court the non-implementation of the Collector’s order if the problem of the Colony-residents were not solved by January 31, 2008. The next day, open protest activities were announced at a press conference in Kollam. All newspapers published the announcement of protest giving great importance.
The political leaders tried to play their last trick by organising a ‘pattaya mela’ one week before the end of January and thus cheating the colony-residents giving only pattayam and not land. And for this, a pattaya mela, in which the Revenue Minster would participate, was announced to be on January 30.?But the Action Council informed the Panchayat President on January 27 in a letter that they didn’t want pattayam without land and also that they would boycott the pattaya mela unanimously. The authorities who came under extreme pressure were now forced to measure and distribute land. Because of the threat that the pattaya mela will be boycotted, the authorities took immediate measures and land was handed over to the colony-residents after it was measured and settled under the leadership of the Tehsildar.
Putting an end to the misery of 18 long years, the residents of the Mukkaal Cent Colony became the owners of 3.5 cents of land on January 29, 2008.?What was seen afterward was the wiping out of the political leaders, who had exploited the colony-residents for about two decades, from the whole picture. No political party was present during the measurement of the land. The survey was completed in the presence of the members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Solidarity alone.
The District Collector distributed the pattayams in a function held on February 2.?The colony-residents arrived to receive the pattayams after they marched under the banner of the Solidarity in the town. They gave a petition signed by all 41 of them to the Collector asking him to include a representative of the Solidarity also for felicitating the Pattaya Mela. The Action Council pasted posters widely hailing the Solidarity. Those posters can be seen in all the houses of the colony. The residents assert that the politicians who had pushed them into the sea of distress for a period of two decades, in the name of solving a problem which could have been solved in a week, won’t step into the colony any more.
All families in the colony are socially and economically backward. The expense for moving to the plots allotted and to construct new houses is beyond what they can afford.?They are expecting the generous to help rehabilitate them.