An all-India association of farmers, which will bring together agitating agriculturists across the country will join the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), led by social activist Medha Patkar, to demand a law for debt-free farming ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Ms. Patkar said here on Friday that the farmers’ association would also demand adequate pricing for farm produce to be included in the election manifestos of parties.
In the city to express solidarity with evicted slum dwellers, she condemned their forcible eviction from the banks of the Cooum under the pretext of river restoration. “This is actually a form of land grab,” she said, demanding that residents of slum settlements that had been recognised under the Tamil Nadu Slum Areas Act, 1971, be provided in-situ rehabilitation as per the law.
She also raised concerns about land, currently in the possession of fish workers being snatched away in the name of expansion of the Ennore Expessway and laying of an oil pipeline in North Chennai.
“Chennai’s urban development plans are designed to drive the working class out of the city. This is against their constitutionally guaranteed right to life,” she said.
Architect K. Sudhir, Director of the Peoples Architecture Commonwealth, presented findings from a rapid assessment study conducted along the banks of the Cooum to show how in the name of river restoration, the Chennai River Restoration Trust was trying to consolidate the revenue boundary along the river. “The Metro Rail ramp from Koyambedu to Thirumangalam, the MRTS ramp near Park Station, these are the structures that are encroaching on the river, not the slum settlements,” Mr. Sudhir said.
R. Geetha, advisor of the Unorganised Workers Federation, said this was a new kind of untouchability being practised in urban areas against slum dwellers, who mostly belonged to the Adi Dravida community.
