Environmental and social organisations have come up with a manifesto for sustainable development to “expose the hollow promises” made by major political parties.
The document was launched by Kerala Gandhi Smarak Nidhi secretary K.G. Jagadeesh by presenting the first copy to the Kerala Swathanthra Malsya Thozhilali Federation leader Magline Peter at a press conference at the Press Club here on Thursday.
The manifesto calls for allotting agricultural land for marginalised sections, including Dalits and tribal people. It calls for fixing the value of land on the basis of its biodiversity and natural resources. Serious efforts should be made to promote an agricultural model which aims at food security, rather than depending on single-crop farming system which promoted cultivating cash crops that depended heavily on the international market which witnessed frequent fluctuations.
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Highlighting the need for undertaking an energy audit, the participating organisations called for effective measures to bring down the transmission and distribution losses to 9 per cent. Measures must also be adopted to reduce the carbon footprint in public sector enterprises, government offices and schools at the rate of five per cent every year.
Demanding that the field of health care remained under the public sector, the manifesto urged for enacting laws to monitor and control the functioning of private hospitals in the State. Generic medicines must be made available at cheap rates for the public. Lower tier hospitals must be brought under the control of local self-government institutions. It calls for exerting pressure on the Centre for implementing the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel.