Holding banners and flags, and raising slogans, nearly a thousand landless farmers from different parts of Raichur district marched from Ambedkar Circle to the office of the Deputy Commissioner here on Wednesday demanding cultivable land and residential plots.
The protest march and the agitation was part of a State-wide strike called by Bhoomi Mattu Vasati Hakku Vanchitara Horata Samithi, a group of different organisations and individuals demanding cultivable land for landless farmers and homes for the homeless.
‘No moral right’
Addressing the demonstration outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office, Kumar Samatala, State convenor of Karnataka Janashakti, said that all the political parties that had led the successive governments in the State did not have any moral right to celebrate the birth centenary of the former Chief Minister late D. Devaraj Urs who introduced land reforms in the State with the intention of providing cultivable land to poor tillers.
“Unless the right to shelter and right to cultivable land are upheld as fundamental rights of farmers and agricultural labourers, even the Siddaramaiah government has no moral right to celebrate Devaraj Urs’ birth centenary. Only by fulfilling its commitment to providing five acres of land to every landless farmer and a housing plot for every homeless family, can the State government meaningfully celebrate the birth anniversary of the iconic leader who made significant progress in uplifting the rural downtrodden economically,” Mr. Samatala said.
‘Poor targeted’
R. Manasayya, leader of Karnataka Raitha Sangha, attacked the Union and State governments for backing public land-grabbers. “Millions of acres of forest land, revenue land, lakes, tanks, gomalas and other public spaces have been encroached upon by landlords, industrialists, politicians and alike, all of who are hand-in-glove with the government. Instead of clearing these encroachments and distributing the cultivable land among landless peasants, the government has always targeted poor farmers who have been cultivating government land to earn their daily meals,” he said.
The agitating farmers demanded that the government constitute a high-level committee with the Chief Minister as its head and other officials and representatives of farmers’ movements as members to identify government land and distribute the same among landless peasants as quickly as possible.
Protest march
“Land tribunals should also be revived to deal with the dispute arising in implementing land reforms. Thousands of landless farmers from all districts will march to Bengaluru on August 20 with the same demands,” Mr. Samatala said.
