Member of Parliament D. Ravikumar on Sunday alleged that the ruling AIADMK had no bona fide intentions to retrieve Panchami lands in the State and transfer it to Adi-dravidars as was evident in the lack of efforts over the years.
In a statement, Mr. Ravikumar said that the previous DMK government had constituted a committee headed by former Madras High Court Judge Maruthamuthu in 2011 to examine the various issues related to Panchami lands.
However, when the AIADMK government came into existence, the commission was dissolved.
However, on a subsequent writ petition filed in the Madras High Court, the AIADMK government formed a high-level committee in 2015 and it was anyone’s guess to know what happened to that committee also, Mr. Ravikumar said.
“The constitution of the high-level committee was thus only an ‘eyewash’ and this only showed that the AIADMK government was not interested in retrieving Panchami lands, which would be transferred to Dalits”, he said.
The claim of State Information Minister Kadambur C. Raju that the AIADMK government was interested in the welfare of Dalits lacked truth and if it was true why were no steps taken to retrieve the lands, he said.