If the Government is not kicking up controversies, one after the other, it is busy making announcements which later prove to be cruel hoaxes on the people.

The latest such announcement was that Kannur has become the first zero landless district in the country. The announcement came amid big fanfare at a function attended by Union Minister for Rural Development, Jairam Ramesh. So impressed was the Minister by the Kerala Government’s ‘achievement’ that he exhorted other States to ‘follow the lead set’ by it.

But even before the hype and hoopla over the Government’s grand claim have subsided, facts have come to light that tell an entirely different story. The shocking tale is one of concealment of facts to suit the Government’s interests and callousness on the part of the bureaucracy.

For instance, the Government had announced that 11, 118 people would be given title deeds. But only 11, 106 people got it on the day the function was organized. It was also found that some of the applicants were not genuine! Which means that the process by which the beneficiaries were identified was anything but foolproof.

Not only that. More than 6,000 families, including adivasis, Muslims and other backward communities are still waiting for title deeds, some of them ‘in the queue’ for over seven years, Majority of those awaiting title deeds are said to be from the taluks of Thalasseri and Taliparamba.

What adds insult to injury is the fact that though the officials were fully aware of these facts, they concealed it to suit the Government’s agenda.

What is more, in an ominous development which could have a bearing on the voting pattern in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, agitated adivasi outfits and tribal organisations have accused the UDF Government of perpetrating a gigantic hoax on the people in the name of allotment of title deeds.

A conservative estimate has it that as many as 12,000 tribal families continue to be landless, making a mockery of the original package announced by the erstwhile UDF Government headed by AK Antony. These organisations say the state government has taken the Union Government for a mighty ride by making false claims about Kannur having become a zero landless district.

According to the Booparishkarana Samithy, the Oommen Chandy government has not given even a cent of land to the adivasis after it assumed power in 2011. The over 19,000 acres of land the Centre had given to the state for distribution among the landless have been diverted for other purposes, it is learnt.

This being the hard reality, the UDF Government’s much-trumpeted declaration that it is a government that genuinely cares for the landless has been exposed for what it really is: an unmitigated sham.

Meanwhile, the adivasi and tribal organisations have made it clear that, unless the Government restored to the adivasis and tribals land diverted for other purposes, they would resort to an agitation. (IPA Service)