-- Sam Daniel - June 5, 2005 (Madurai)

A land scam in Madurai has exposed how thousands of acres of land given to dalits under the Panjami scheme are being illegally taken over and possessed by business houses and dominant communities.  Sahara City Homes, which is developing townships in 217 cities is alleged to have acquired over twenty acres of Panjami land for its project in the city. Forty-three year old dalit Ramamoorthi is a shattered man. A multi-crore housing complex will soon come up in the land that should rightfully belong to him. 

Three acres of land at the Ayyanpapakudi village was given to his father free of cost by the government in 1974 under the Panjami scheme. But a moneylender had forcibly transferred the land to his name. Although revenue authorities redeemed the land in 2004, they allotted the land to six other local dalits, allegedly to facilitate "Sahara City Homes" gaining a sprawling 105-acre area for their mega-housing project. "I have no other property. It is so difficult to even feed myself. If I get back my land I will be able to survive," said Ramamoorthi.
 
NON-TRANSFERABLE PROPERTY
 
Panjami lands cannot be sold or gifted to upper caste people. Even when governments take over such illegally transferred properties, they have to be returned to the original owners or their legal successors.  In this case however, the successors of all such original owners live in the vicinity but have been completely ignored.

The company has also allegedly bought over fifteen acres of Panjami land illegally from many dalits with the connivance of revenue officials. An aggressive campaign by dalits has now forced the authorities to probe the entire sale and allotment process.
 
LEGAL HELP

Over twenty lakh acres of Panjami lands were given away to dalits during the days of the British. But in Tamil Nadu alone over a lakh acres of these lands are presently possessed by non-dalits. "We are going to file a written petition in the Madras high court, asking the court to direct the government to release the status of Panjami lands in all districts," said Ayyan Kazhai of the Land Reclamation Committee. Sahara officials however, refused to speak on camera claiming their records are straight.