Silvester D’Souza

Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (MS)

Kundapur, May 27: The Udupi district organizing committee of the Karnataka Adivasi Rights Coordination Committee held a protest in front of Aloor gram panchayat, condemning the delay tactics of the revenue and survey department in allotting land to the Koraga community as per the Dr Mohammed Peer report.

Addressing the protesters, district convener Sridhan Nada said, “Due to the earlier protest demanding one acre of land per Koraga family, 10 acres of land were identified and surveyed. However, to date, only eight Koraga families have benefited from these 10 acres. Although the Kundapur tahsildar has initiated action to survey seven acres of land in Aloor village and five acres in Harkoor village, the survey department has not yet conducted the survey.”

Nada continued, “Despite our appeals at the district and taluk level meetings addressing issues faced by the Koraga community, there has been no progress. Although three Koraga families living on Odeyara land in Aloor were promised land ownership two years ago, this has not been fulfilled. We are protesting against the delay tactics employed by the concerned departments since 2016, despite repeated demands for government land for the Koraga community.”

Tahsildar Shobha Laxmi, who arrived at the protest site, held discussions with the protesters. Following the discussion, she announced that a joint meeting would be called after June 10, once the election code of conduct is no longer in effect. The protesters reiterated their warning that they would hold a large-scale protest on June 10 if the issue is not resolved by then.

State committee members Krishna Inna and Ganesh Aloor, Aloor unit convener Revathy Aloor, Raju Bettinamane Koraga Samudaya Aloor, gram panchayat PDO Roopa Gopi, gram panchayat president Rajesh N Devadiga, gram panchayat former vice president Ravi Shetty, Vandse revenue department officer Raghavendra and land probationary officer Walekar were present.