The week beginning on Monday will see a series of agitations and demonstrations in the hitherto peaceful islands of Lakshadweep against the move to introduce “reforms” by the Administrator Praful Patel.
Fearing a backlash from the people, the Lakshadweep Development Authority by a special order on Saturday asked all non-residents and outsiders to leave the island immediately. People from Kerala and other States who have come to the islands as visitors and contract workers have to leave the archipelago by Monday, said the order.
“Ours is a peace-loving population and we are happy if we are left alone,” Mohammed Faizal, MP, told The Pioneer on Sunday. He said a latest order issued by the Administration that all fishing boats operating from the islands should have a Government official in them was bizarre.
“There are more than 100 fishing boats operating from each of these islands and how are they ging to post government officials in all these boats? It is these kinds of laws that make us alien in our own land,” said Faizal.
Wajahat Habibullah, a former IAS officer who was a highly revered bureaucrat and was the Administrator of Lakshadweep for many years said that the reforms announced by the present administrator were something which the islands could do without.
He cautioned the authorities that the slew of draft legislation will have wide ranging impact on the islands. “Lakshadweep with its land ownership constitutionally protected be opened to international tourism not as a means for generating wealth for investors from the mainland but to bring prosperity to the islanders,” he pointed out in a recent article on the issue.
Meanwhile 93 retired civil servants from across the country have sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the controversial decisions by administrator Praful Patel. The former officials said the move to bring in reforms as desired by Patel would alienate the islanders.
“Each of these draft regulations is part of a larger agenda that is against the ethos and interests of the islands and islanders,” said the officials stating that these decisions were taken without
consulting the people of Lakshadweep.
The Kerala High Court by a special order issued last week had asked the Lakshadweep Administration to submit its explanation and affidavit with respect to the draft resolutions within a fortnight.
The retired officials have asked for the immediate recall of the administrator and the appointment of a serving bureaucrat in his place.