Tamil Perarasu Party's General Secretary VA Gowthaman todayfiled a petition at the Coimbatore SP office.
Coimbatore: Tribals near Velliangiri and ISHA Foundation today petitioned the Coimbatore SP office after Tamil Perarasu Party's General Secretary and Director VA Gowthaman had earlier today filed a petition at the Coimbatore SP office requesting to recover tribal land. In his petition Director turned politician VA Gowthaman said that "Isha Foundation has taken over the 44 acres of land from the locals near Velliangiri and requested the police officials to intervene and help the locals get their land back"
Tribals in that area though have refuted the allegations and filed a counter with Coimbatore SP demanding that director VA Gowthaman stay away from their local issues and not make it political or spread false claims. In a petition signed by many tribal villagers, they accused that Sathyajothi, Siva and Agri professor Kamaraj was inciting people with money and using it for their benefits. They also accused that Gowthaman had used a local issue into portraying it as some land issue and asked the police department to stop Gowthaman from not entering their villages without police custody.
See petition below:
Director VA Gowthaman who then met the press and said that "Velliangiri hill is surrounded by the tribals who live in the area for generations. The Tamilnadu government gave around 44 acres of land to the people of the Irular tribe in the Vellikinaru area. But it is said that Isha Foundation has taken over these lands and also severely attacked a tribal woman named Kaliammal who was involved in retaining the lost land from Isha.
I have requested the officials to take severe actions on Kaliammal's attackers and also asked the officials to retain the lost 44 acres of land which is taken over by the Isha Foundation."
Tamil Perarasu Party's General Secretary VA Gowthaman then condemned Isha Foundation for illegally taking over the land's of people and also said that Tamil Perarasu Party members will soon be involved in a protest against this illegal hijacking of people's lands.
Despite Isha Foundation Founder ‘Sadhguru’ Jaggi Vasudev repeatedly challenging people to provide proof of hijacking elephant corridors or tribal People’s livelihoods, the chorus against it continues from various opposition parties, though no one has been able to provide concrete proof of any such activity barring one building violation inside Dhyanalinga. ISHA Foundation has clearly said that they have nothing to do with the 44 acres land and have denied all these claims by opposition parties as baseless political posturing.