CHENNAI: CPM on Wednesday urged the Tamil Nadu govt to immediately appeal against the Supreme Court’s order directing the eviction of encroachers in the Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve. CPM state secretary P Shanmugam criticized the Supreme Court order to deploy paramilitary forces for the eviction drive. He called the measure excessively harsh on people living there for generations. “It would affect around 98,000 people living there,” he said. Shanmugam appreciated the TVK govt’s “bold move” over the inam land issue in Karur. He urged chief minister C Joseph Vijay to constitute a commission to look into the issues of inam land across the state. He charged that RSS and Hindu outfits were acting against the interest of poor Hindus by giving wrong interpretation to inam land and by filing cases in various courts in the state. Turning his focus to political ethics, Shanmugam launched a scathing attack on the practice of horse-trading. He stated that regular defection and trading of MLAs — whether engineered by the ruling or opposition parties – “is unacceptable and undermines democracy.” Shanmugam appealed to voters to take a stand against political opportunism. He asked the voters to protest MLAs resigning within just a few weeks of being elected. He termed such quick exits a betrayal of the voters’ mandate.
