6th Reply to DLDP Queries (13 January 1994)
A variety of factors have contributed to this. Sometimes it is because they
have defied their ethnic groups and joined the village CSU in spite of “caste
directives” to the contrary. In other cases it is because they have obtained
these lands through prolonged struggle and court litigations. Mr. Laban’s
observation that working on these lands will have very little or even negative
impact is true. Our reactions are therefore as under:
- We are reasonably confident of being able to convince the CSUs (and
especially those unfortunate members whose holdings are not adjacent to their
peers’) on the reasons for not implementing the DLDP on such lands. This will
naturally lead to membership problems in some CSUs, but we suppose we have to
face that.
- Very few coolies own lands down slope with the up slope lands belonging to
noncoolies. As a general rule of thumb, the lands farthest away from the
villages and highest in elevation are coolie lands.