TN village tense as farmers take on Dinakaran

Prohibitory orders in Tiruttani, many pro-Left people taken into custody

The Thiruvallur District Administration mobilised a large police contingent to stand guard as the pro-Left farmers organisations said they will go ahead with their “land retrieval agitation” there on Monday, in what is seen as a direct protest against Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran, facing “land grab” charges in that village.

The police made some preventive arrests, including Thiruvallur District Communist Party of India (Marxist) secretary K Selvaraj, on Sunday evening hours after prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC, were imposed on the Tiruttani taluk, virtually banning any procession or protests and even any assemblage of more than four people.

Protest agenda

The farmers’ bodies have enlarged their protest agenda saying it was against “all private parties” who have allegedly encroached upon nearly 400 acres of “poromboke” (government) land.

Official sources in Tiruttani taluk told Deccan Herald over the phone on Sunday evening that they still hoped that the farmers organisations, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-affiliated “Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam”, would postpone their agitation.

The stir had to be put off due to heavy rain lashing most parts of coastal Tamil Nadu in the last two days.

The situation at Kaverirajapuram village is calm but tense, sources said.
Condemning the preventive arrests, Sangam’s general secretary K Balakrishnan reiterated that their agitation would go on as planned on Monday at Kaverirajapuram.

Surplus land

The farmers’ bodies main demand is that all “surplus” lands there should be taken back by the government and redistributed to the landless “dalits” of the village.
There are about 300 dalit families there.

Justice P D Dinakaran, whose elevation to the Supreme Court was recently put on hold by the Supreme Court’s collegium, is in the eye of a storm, facing allegations of encroaching upon nearly 200 acres of “poromboke” (government) land at Kaverirajapuram.

The judge has denied the allegations saying he has not purchased “even a cent of land” after he became a judge of the Madras High Court.