Kochi: Hundreds of residents in the disputed land in Munambam joined the protest site at Velankanni Matha church here on Christmas day. The people condemned the government's apathy in settling the dispute. A group of people under the Munambam Land Protection Committee (Bhoosamrakshana Samithi) has been observing a relay hunger strike here from 10 am to 6 pm. Cancelling the Christmas celebrations, people, including the elderly and children, gathered at the protest site and spent time together by singing devotional songs and revolutionary poems. Opposition leader VD Satheesan reached the protest site on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, the ongoing protest, which started in October, entered its 74th day on Wednesday. A total of 610 families are participating in the protest against the Wakf Board's claim to around 400 acres of land. The judicial commission appointed by the government to settle the land dispute will visit Munambam on January 4.

The Munambam Wakf land issue
The dispute began in 2019 when the Wakf Board claimed ownership over land allegedly donated to Farook College in Kozhikode by Siddique Sait in 1950. The residents, who bought the land before the Wakf Act was introduced in 1954, claim that they legally purchased it from the college management and that it was not classified as Wakf property then.

By 2022, these families could not pay land taxes at the village office, but a temporary intervention by the state government allowed them to proceed. However, the Wakf Samrakshana Samathi (Wakf Protection Forum) contested this decision, resulting in a court order that paused tax payments. The residents petitioned the high court, seeking intervention in declaring certain sections of the Wakf Act unconstitutional. The ongoing legal proceedings have heightened tensions in the predominantly Christian community.

In a bid to pacify the protest, the government ordered that all procedures to evict the families from the disputed land be frozen. On November 22, Minister for Law P Rajeeve said that the government had formed a judicial commission under Justice CN Ramachandran to study the dispute over the land. The commission is expected to submit its report to the government within three months.