THOUSANDS of farmers and workers observed the Bhagat Singh Martyrdom day on March 23 as Land Rights Day in Tamilnadu. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) held massive demonstrations in main city centres.

As part of the national call against the Land Acquisition Bill, CITU led the protest in Chennai. CPI(M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan, CITU state general secretary G Sugumaran and AIDWA vice president U Vasuki and other leaders addressed the protest.

In Thanjavur, various farmers organisations led by the AIKS and the AIAWU organised a protest-cum-pledge taking event. Leaders of Tamilnadu Vyavasayikal Sangam, P Shanmugam, Dr V Duraimanikam, AIAWU state leaders A Lazar MLA, and G Mani led the protest.

In Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem and Thirunelveli CPI(M) organised protest demonstrations against the Land Bill.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led union government should give up Land Acquisition Bill that would be detrimental to the life of over 60 crore farmers, said leaders while addressing the above protests.

Though prime minister Narendra Modi claimed that farmers could get four times the actual land price as compensation, the draconian features of the Bill included the provision where the land owners would not be able to go to court even if officials made any mistake in calculating the compensation, they said.

The leaders pointed out that the 2013 Bill had ensured that no land could be acquired without the consent of a minimum of 70 per cent farmers for government projects. Similarly, at least 50 per cent of the land owners should give consent for acquiring land for public-private projects. However, the present Bill said that the land could be taken without the consent of farmers. Besides, no social impact on account of the acquisition needs to be taken into consideration. “It is mysterious as to why the AIADMK which had opposed the Bill in 2013 was supporting it now,” they said. 

LAND RIGHTS DAY

OBSERVED IN UP

Land rights day was observed at Tekua Chauraha in Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh on March 23, under the banner of Kisan Sabha and the DYFI. AIKS national joint secretary,  NK Shukla participated in the programme. He appealed to the peasantry and the agricultural workers to organise signature campaigns, padyatras, village meetings, state and district level conventions and protest rallies jointly with other mass organisations and social groups, to protest against the Bill. Other speakers included freedom fighter Munshi Singh, Radhakrisna Yadav,Ramashanker Gupta,Ramvilas Singh,Omprakash and others.