With A Raja stepping down as the telecom minister, a group of villagers in his hometown, half of them Dalit, have come forward alleging that their lands were usurped by a real estate firm, Green House Promoters, headed by an associate of the DMK leader, using influence and intimidation.
Around 60 Dalit villagers, of the total 160 whose land was allegedly forcibly acquired, are now listing out their names as well as details of their land holdings, seeking action. The 160 villagers claim to have received between Rs 65,000 and Rs 3.5 lakh an acre for land ? much less than the government?s guideline price of Rs 4.35 lakh and a pittance compared to the Rs 15-18 lakh per acre that the company apparently paid the agents for an acre (the actual price is as yet unclear).
The land in question is among the most productive in the region, with the lemon grown here earning a special margin at markets in nearby towns. Corn, groundnut, onion and paddy were some of the other crops that the farmers cultivated till about three years ago ? when tyre major MRF started scouting for land to set up a Rs 900 crore greenfield plant.
When first approached, most of the farmers rejected the offer. That is when, farmers say, agents of Green House Promoters, run by A M Sadhick Batcha and others close to Raja, including his elder brother and nephews, entered the picture in mid-2007.
By early next year, Green House had completed the purchase of 600 acres ? a task governments find difficult to accomplish. A couple of cases where they failed ? a little over 16 acres in all ? the government acquired the land (a high court bench dismissed a petition against acquisition by one of the aggrieved parties last week).
Most of it was then handed over to MRF by February 2008. The seller was Batcha, holding an irrevocable power of attorney on behalf of the original owners, the mostly-illiterate farmers of Naranamangalam.
The agents also continued to keep 161 acres, whose price is set to appreciate when the factory becomes fully operational.
?Forget the DMK?s line of defence on the spectrum scandal about Raja being a Dalit. It was the Dalit farmers who were targeted first by his men, and they were the ones who received the least amount for their land,? says village vice-president S Selladurai, himself a Dalit.
Collector M Vijayakumar says the district administration has ordered an inquiry by the district revenue officer (DRO) and Superintendent of Police. The DRO will scrutinise the documents for forgery, misuse of power of attorney, or sale of land using only a sale agreement. ?However,? Vijayakumar adds, ?if the documents are found to be proper, the correctional powers of revenue and registration departments will be limited. We have our limitations in such an agreement between private parties when there is nothing to show any acts of illegality.?
In Naranamangalam, after the setbacks to Raja and company, voices are growing louder. A feeble, old man recounts how he was made to surrender 1.90 acres for Rs 70,000 per acre. Marudamuthu, too, is a Dalit. So is Perumal, who lost 1.75 acres, and K Selvaraj, who once had an acre of agricultural land.
Agents, including Senthil Murugan and Selvaraj and their superior Subbudu alias Subramanian ? an aide of Batcha who was raided and questioned by the CBI last week ? later approached others with the offer of a better price than what was paid to the Dalits, plus a job, when the factory came up.
According to villagers, the ?sugar coating? just hid threats to do physical harm and foist police cases, and even a warning that if Green House failed, the government would directly acquire the land giving them peanuts.
Incidentally, before becoming Batcha?s man, Senthil Murugan, hailing from the same area, was a reporter with a vernacular weekly. Residents here say he organised a protest against the land deals when the villagers were first approached. But one day he returned as an agent of Green House Promoters, and soon joined a paper close to the ruling camp.
R Senthil Kumar is among those who claims to have been ?extorted? into parting with land. He says that days after he rejected the offer, he was arrested under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. ?The charge was that I abused a Dalit youth, though my quarrel with him was over some money he owed me. I was told that I could escape only if I agreed to sell my three-and-a-half-acre property. They were able to scare my mother and sister, who forced me to sell it,? Kumar says.
Alleging that officials had to be involved, he points out that as soon as he gave in, he was released and taken straight from prison to the Chettikulam sub-registrar?s office, where the property documents were signed after 9 pm ? way beyond the working hours of the office and staff.
Paramasivam and his wife Thavamani were slightly better, or so they thought, as they got Rs 5 lakh for their two acres. Hours after they had got the money, they had some visitors late in the night. ?At around 11 pm, about 10 persons came in two vehicles and took away appa and amma . They said we were given extra money for the land and forcefully took back Rs 1.5 lakh,? says their daughter Thamaraiselvi.
N Chelladurai, the district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Vyavasayigal Sangam (a farmers? association of the CPM) says this was just one way Raja and his men made money off land.
The former MP from Perambalur runs a social organisation named after his parents, the Andimuthu Chinnapillai Charitable Trust, which has come to own large tracts of land across the region. ?To much fanfare, the trust announced donating tiny portions of land to the government for setting up a medical college, an arts college and a polytechnic. This earned him accolades on one side, even as it covertly increased the price of the surrounding land ? all owned by the trust,? says Chelladurai.