Social and environmental activist Medha Patkar said on Friday that there should be a moratorium on converting not just paddy land, but agricultural land in general.
Responding to queries from the media on the sidelines of a function held at the High Court for the release of two books authored by Advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, Ms. Patkar lamented that over 180 lakh hectares of land had been diverted to non-agricultural purposes such as industrialisation and infrastructure development in the country over the last 10 years.
“After the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act of 2008, we thought this trend would come to an end here, but regularisation of converted land goes against the law and should end,” she said, adding that corporate tycoons were eager to hoard land close to highways for their industries and businesses to flourish.
Urging farmers’ organisations to come together to oppose the government move, she said the issue would be deliberated upon at the People’s Assembly under the aegis of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) in Thiruvananthapuram from Saturday. “We will also try to meet the Chief Minister to take up the issue with him,” she said.
According to Ms. Patkar, acquisition of land should not be done without the consent of the community affected by it. Earlier, speaking on ‘Environment, social justice and court’, Ms. Patkar said that the crucial question on the dichotomy between environment and development was whether a plan or project was indeed development-oriented.
Talking of large-scale eviction of people, including Dalits, slum dwellers and the urban poor purportedly to make way for development projects, she said it amounted to denying them constitutional rights.
