UDF team to visit Nelliampathy today

Six UDF MLAs will be visiting Nelliampathy on Monday as part of a fact finding mission where they will also study the problems of lease-expired estates and those which have violated lease agreements.


T N Prathapan, V D Satheesan, V T Balaram, Hibi Eden of the Congress, K M Shaji of the Muslim League and Shreyams Kumar of the Socialist Janatha Democratic Party will be the six MLAs visiting the area.


The MLAs, who will reach Nelliampathy on Saturday evening, will visit the controversial Cherunelli estate as well as other estates on Sunday. They will also interact with trade union activists, workers, estate owners and representatives of environment groups.


Social and environment groups have welcomed the visit, which according to them is part of the duty of elected representatives.



The visit signifies that the MLAs were duty-bound to protect the soil, forests and rivers, environment groups have opined.


Groups like the Nelliampathy Protection Committee, Bharathapuzha Protection Committee, Jana Jagratha, Plaachimada Cola Viruddha Samara Samithy, Wildlife Protection Society, among others, have expressed hope that the visit will help in resolving the issues in the area.


They said that the estates which have completed their lease period and those whose lease periods have been violated should be taken over by the government.


They alleged that the earlier attempts at resolving the issues by the government could not be considered genuine, as the inclusion of Chief Whip P C George, who has always been arguing in favour of the estate owners, in the UDF sub committee to Nelliampathy had reduced it to a farce.