Dissolution of LS mars Kerala’s protest

The V P Singh Government made some crucial declarations, mostly in the field of agriculture, but sadly no follow-up action was taken. This time too, there were encouraging signals. We will have to wait to see how things work out,” a senior bureaucrat told The Indian Express.

The areas which will be affected the most with the change of guard at the Centre are agriculture, power, food and civil supplies. All these portfolios, except for power, were held by CPI ministers at the Centre, with their counterparts holding charge here.The lone Cabinet member in Kerala who will be rueing the fall of the UF Government is Revenue Minister K E Ismail.

For, the controversial Tribal Land Bill, which seeks to give equal amount of alternative land to tribals who had lost their original property to settlers, had surmounted nearly all major hurdles and was set to reach the President’s table for his assent.

The Kerala Scheduled Tribes (Restriction on Transfer of Lands and Restoration of Alienated Lands) Amendment Bill, passed near unanimously by the Assembly with only K R Gowri choosing to abstain, had run into umpteen problems with the CPM State unit suddenly turning hostile, primarily due to opposition from party satraps like Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

In a last-ditch effort, Ismail succeeded in getting the approval of the CPM. The opposition of the Union Social Welfare Ministry, headed by Surjeet protege B S Ramoowalia, disappeared soon after and the Home Ministry was in the process of forwarding it to the President.

In the changed situation, the future of the Bill looks cloudy. Another Bill awaiting Presidential clearance is the Kerala Board of Revenue Abolition Bill which seeks to repeal the Kerala Board of Revenue Act, 1957. It has been over a year since the Bill was sent to the Centre.

Rubber growers in the State had to content themselves with plummeting prices. At a recent MPs’ conference held here, the issue had come in for some hot debate. The State has appealed to the Centre to ban import of used tyres, and restrict import of polyeurethene to protect latex and natural rubber foam industries.