Port Blair, Nov 26 2020
Sri Lankan Tamil Settlers of Katchal Island are protesting for their resettlement to South Andaman District since the last eight days. These settlers have been on relay hunger strike for four days now and on the third day of the relay hunger strike, the women members of the Sri Lankan Tamil settlers took over the baton from the male members and decided to continue the relay hunger strike started by their community.
The demands of the Sri Lanakan settler families are resettlement from the Katchal Island, which is a tribal area to a non-tribal area. The first protest by the Sri Lanakan Settlers for their resettlement to a non-tribal area was recorded in the year 1995.
The members of the community have the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party and even the Tribal Council of Katchal and the Tribal Development Council, Andaman and Nicobar Islands have demanded their resettlement. The issue of their resettlement is very sensitive, since all sections of the society are demanding it and the tribals of the Katchal Island do not want these settlers to stay in the Island anymore, according to the members of the settler community.
These settlers are even deprived of basic facilities like functional toilets, they even cannot start a business since the Katchal Island is a tribal area and ANPATR, 1956 applies there.
The members of the Sri Lankan Settler community have now decided to send approximately three hundred individual representations to the Hon’ble Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands demanding his personal intervention to solve their issues and to facilitate their resettlement from Katchal Island to South Andaman District.
The situation of these settlers are really grave and the Administration needs to intervene and provide them with a timeline for their resettlement to a non-tribal area. These settlers need to be provided with all the basic facilities needed for a dignified life, like proper toilets and means to earn their livelihood, until the time that they are resettled to a different non-tribal area with a adequate and mutually agreeable package of benefits.
The protests of these settlers will continue, until the time the Administration gives them an agreeable timeline for their settlement to a non-tribal area conveyed Mr. Lawrence, Joint Secretary, Katchal Settlers Welfare Association, while speaking to Nicobar Times over phone.
Further these settlers have also submitted their ration cards and other identity documents to the Special Relief Officer of Katchal Island as a mark of protest against the delay of their resettlement from the Katchal Island to a non-tribal area.
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