UDF sub-committee visits Cherunelli estate on fact-finding mission

The Nelliampathy UDF sub-committee visited Cherunelli estate and interacted with different sections of people, including nature lovers and estate workers, as part of its fact-finding mission, on Wednesday. Though the committee had planned a two-day visit, including an overnight stay, it wrapped up the visit by 3 pm in the wake of the unexpected hartal call by the CPM.


The committee, headed by M M Hassan, consisted of Johny Nelloor of the Kerala Congress (Jacob), P C George of the Kerala Congress (M), N Rajan Babu of the JSS, Aravindakshan of the CMP, Varghese George of the Socialist Janata Party, Venugopal Nair of the Kerala Congress (B) and Shamsudheen of the IUML. The team reached the ITL guesthouse at Nelliampathy from where it collected the memoranda submitted by taxi drivers and other workers, besides holding discussions with Forest Department officials.


Speaking to mediapersons at the guesthouse, M M Hassan denied reports that the visit was intended to uphold the interests of the estate lobby. He said the committee was on a fact-finding mission without any pre-determined conclusions. Meanwhile, S Guruvayurappan, South India coordinator of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, said that the Legislative Committee on Environment had submitted its report in 2000 and the government only needed to implement the suggestions made in the report.He said the committee was being misled on the issue of loss of jobs at the estates which are under the scanner. As per available data, the Thoothampara estate did not have even a single worker registered with the Labour Department prior to its takeover by the Forest Department.


Guruvayurappan submitted before the committee that the real situation at Nelliampathy was shortage of labour, not loss of employment as presumed earlier.