UDF to back Chithralekha

The UDF has decided to take up the cause of Dalit autorickshaw driver Eramangalath Chithralekha, whose allotted five cents of land has been cancelled by the LDF government.

The previous government had allotted her the land following her agitation highlighting alleged threat to her life and property from local CPI(M) workers in her native village of Edat near Payyannur.

UDF leaders led by senior Congress leader K. Sudhakaran and local MLA and IUML leader K.M. Shaji on Saturday visited the five-cent plot at Kattampally here where a small house is under construction for Ms. Chithralekha with funds mobilised by the MLA and an Abu Dhabi-based Malayali organisation ‘Green Voice.’

The government order cancelling the allotment of the land at Kattampally was seen as a move to harass her.

Speaking to reporters during his visit to the plot, Mr. Sudhakaran said that she had been allotted the land by the Oommen Chandy government on her plea that she was not being allowed to live in her native village by the local CPI(M) and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) workers. The local CPI(M) workers had actually exiled her from her village, he said adding that the previous government sanctioned the land at Kattampally after examining all the issues using the special powers vested with the government to take such decisions. The reason cited for cancelling the allotment of the land was that Chithralekha owns a six-cent land at Edat, he said adding that the land owned by her grandmother was transferred to her name for allowing her to take loan for buying an autorickshaw.

“Ms. Chithralekha did not conceal this fact as her application for the land to the government mentioned that the six-cent land at Edat was in her name,” the Congress leader said. It was a gift deed executed by her grandmother without delivery of possession, he noted.

CM must intervene

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should intervene to ensure that the Dalit woman was allowed to live in peace by earning a living from her work, he said. No government could take back the land allotted to Ms. Chithralekha, he said.

Mr. Shaji said that Ms. Chithralekha was a symbol. It was unbelievable that the State Cabinet had decided to take back the five-cent land of a Dalit woman. “We will complete the construction of the house,” he said.

District Congress president Satheeshan Pacheni and Ms. Chithralekha were also present.