Attempt to divide farmers: Activists

New Delhi, Feb. 23: Ten civil society groups today got together to demand scrapping of the land acquisition ordinance and accused the government of trying to divide the protesting farmer bodies.

The government recently spoke to two pro-farmer bodies, the Bharatiya Krishak Samaj yesterday and the Ekta Parishad today.

Madhuresh Kumar, convener of the National Alliance of People’s Movements – a conglomeration of left-of-centre organisations – said the government’s dialogue with select farmer bodies was an attempt to divide the movement.

Among the other groups present at the joint news conference were the All India Union of Forest Working People, Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Yuva Kranti and the Campaign for Survival and Dignity.

Social activist Medha Patkar said these groups would not accept any compromise formula but would intensify their agitation for the scrapping of the ordinance. They are likely to meet President Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow.

“The government is engaging in false propaganda that the land ordinance is beneficial to farmers and is necessary for building rural infrastructure like drinking water supply, electricity, roads and houses for the poor,” Patkar said.

She denied the Centre’s contention that the 2013 land acquisition act which the ordinance amends was too stringent, saying neither the Centre nor any state government had attempted acquiring land under its provisions.

The UPA-steered law was prepared after consultations, she said, while the NDA government did not speak to any stakeholder except the state governments before promulgating the ordinance.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh today met a delegation from the Ekta Parishad, which is organising a march of 5,000 landless people to Delhi from Palwal in Haryana. They are demanding, among other things, scrapping of the ordinance and a law granting the landless a right to homestead land.

Singh promised to take the matter up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said the National Land Reforms Council, headed by the Prime Minister, would be reconstituted in keeping with the Parishad’s demands. The government had formed the council in 2008 to suggest ways of redistributing excess land among the landless, among other things. But the council hasn’t held a single meeting.

via NorthEast Calling http://ift.tt/1BPl15z