Thiruvananthapuram, April 22 : Dispelling speculation that the eviction drive in Munnar has been put on hold owing to differences of opinion within the ruling front, CPI Kerala unit secretary Kanam Rajendran has said that the government will press ahead with the eviction of illegal encroachments in the hilly town.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Mr. Rajendran reiterated that the illegal encroachments on government land would be removed.
When quizzed about chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s statement that JCB’s need not be used to remove encroachments in Munnar, he said that only conviction, not JCB, was needed to remove the encroachments.
On the row triggered by the revenue department removing a ‘cross’ erected at Papathichola by a fringe Christian denomination, the CPI leader said that the cross removed was not one symbolic of sacrifice but of encroachment.
Mr. Rajendran termed as an act of defiance against the government the re-installation of a cross in the same area at Papathichola overnight, adding that the government would deal with the issue legally.
The CPI state secretary’s assertion that the eviction drive would go on assumes significance in the wake of reports that the government has virtually put on hold the eviction drive until an all-party meeting is called to thrash out a consensus on the anti-encroachment drive.
The CPI(M) had taken exception to the removal of the cross at Papathichola and the clamping of prohibitory orders ahead of the anti-encroachment drive in the region by the district administration on the ground that the incident would give off the impression that the LDF government was waging ‘a war against the cross’.
