House belonging to Dalit woman demolished

Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (DSS – Parivarthana Vada) urged the government to take action against those who have demolished the house a senior citizen belonging to Scheduled Caste in Mukka, Surathkal.

Addressing reporters in Mangaluru on Thursday, Samiti district coordinator Sudhakar B S said that a woman by name Kaveri was living for the past many years at Mallamar in Mukka. She had been residing with her four children in a house built by her father 80 years ago. The Mangaluru City Corporation had also provided a door number and Kaveri had been paying property tax to the Corporation since 1984.

Kaveri had submitted an application to the deputy commissioner in 2002 for the regularisation of the land where she was residing. On April 16, 2002, a written statement was issued by the Revenue Department officials declaring that the land was a ‘Samudra Paramboku’ land and was under investigation for regularisation.

Claim on land

But, one Geetha Hegde went to the court claiming that the land belonged to her. The court issued a notice to Kaveri. But, she could not furnish documents as she did not have any knowledge about the issue. After the court gave its verdict, Geetha and others evicted Kaveri from her house on April 9 and locked the house after throwing all household items out.

The victims had urged the court to review its earlier judgement.

A letter was written to the deputy commissioner on April 14 in this regard. A spot inspection was conducted by the tahsildar and the land was measured by the surveyor. After scrutiny of the documents, the officials had concluded that the house of Kaveri is on ‘Samudra Paramboku’ land.

The tahsildar issued a notice to Geetha on April 30 and directed her to submit documents in her possession within three days.

But on April 30, Geetha arrived at Kaveri’s house, abused the latter with foul language and posed a life threat to her. On May 10 morning, around 15 workers, on directions from Geetha, demolished Kaveri’s house with an earthmover, under police protection.

‘Atrocious’

Sudhakar further said that the act is inhuman and amounts to atrocity.

After incurring a loss over Rs 25 lakh, Kaveri and her family are now residing in a makeshift hut near their house. Based on the complaint filed by Kaveri’s daughter Varija, an FIR was registered at Mangaluru North police station under IPC 1860; SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Mangaluru North MLA Dr Y Bharat Shetty has not visited the spot and consoled the family so far.

DSS state committee member Rajaram B, district organising secretary Nagesh M Kodikal, member Vishwanath Chitrapura and Dayananda Amin were present.