Former IAS officer P. Sivakami has accused former AIADMK MLA A. Shanmugam of usurping Panchami land.
In her interaction with journalists after submitting a petition to Coimbatore district administration, she said the MLA was in wrongful possession of 20 acre Panchami land, which the State Government had given to Dalits.
Likewise, a north Indian businessman was in possession of 65 acre Panchami land in Karamadai Union. These were a few examples of wrongful possession of Panchami land in the district. But there was no clear cut estimate of such wrongful possession as the administration had no records.
Therefore the demand made to the administration was to identify the extent of Panchami land, how much of it was in illegal possession and take action to retrieve those.
Ms. Sivakami, who was accompanied by Samuga Neethi Katchi leader Panneerselvam, said this was a State-wide problem as the Commission for Retrieval of Panchami Land was more or less defunct. In the 10 years from 2011, the Commission was only trying to collect records of Panchami land and its illegal possession from district collectors.
Her prayer to the Chief Minister was to revive the Commission by appointing a retired judge, as was originally done by the DMK government in 2011, and then retrieve the Panchami land.
The second appeal to the Chief Minister was to have a look at the draft Bill on Panchami land holding. At present the Panchami land distribution was governed by a government order of 1910. The State Government thereafter made an effort to enact a legislation. During the 10 years of AIADMK regime, an effort was made to introduce a clause to protect innocent buyers of Panchami land by allowing monetary compensation for the land and buildings on such land.
This went against the very basis of the idea of distribution of land to Dalits and this clause should be done away with, Ms. Sivakami said and reiterated her appeal to the Government to enact a legislation on Panchami land.
