Widespread resentment in Lakshadweep over a slew of bad law proposals

Draft notification for creation of a Lakshadweep Development Authority unsustainable, socially, politically or ecologically.

Discontent is simmering beneath the calm, verdant environs of the Lakshadweep group of islands over a slew of regulations introduced by the new administrator, Praful Khoda Patel in the last five months of his rule, which also saw the archipelago descend from being a ‘COVID-free region’ for nearly a year into one with 6,611 cases until May 23. COVID hit Lakshadweep after the stipulation for mandatory quarantine of Dweep-bound travellers in Kochi was done away with under his stewardship. The 10 inhabited islands of the Union Territory are under lockdown for two months now and the Dweep administration is accused of exploiting the inability of the public to mobilise to push what’s widely seen by the islanders as ‘arbitrary legislations’ that are out of sync with the social, political and environmental realities of the archipelago. The latest draft regulation for the creation of a Lakshadweep Development Authority (LDA) is widely resented as the people suspect that this might have been issued at the behest of ‘real estate interests’ seeking to usurp the small holdings of property owned by the islanders, a majority of them (94.8% as per the 2011 census) belonging to the Scheduled Tribes.