Kerala Congress (M) has released a farmers' rights declaration document to “find solution to the land-related issues in Idukki ditrict'' and to ``protect the farmers'' who had toiled for years for the progress of the district.
Karshaka Union (M) state president Mathew Stephen, who released the document, said that it was prepared after holding wide range of discussions with the stakeholders of the agriculture sector and will be submitted for the immediate attention of both the Central and the State governments.
The documents says that steps should be taken to issue title deeds in a time bound manner to all those who had settled in the district prior to January 1, 1977. The government should take immediate steps to legalise the title deeds issued as per the 1993 rule by making an amendment in this regard.
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The forest department should desist from the move to give ecologically fragile land (EFL) status to highly populated areas and should denotify the cultivated areas from its purview.
The state government should pressurise the Centre to desist from the move to include Udumbanchola, Peerumade and Devikulam taluks as ecologically sensitive areas of Western Ghats as per the recommendation of Dr Madhav Gadgil committee appointed by the Union Forest and Environment Ministry.
The document also says that steps should be taken to issue title deeds in the abandoned hydroelectric project areas as per the 1964 rule, which had been reduced in the 2005 amendment from four acres to one acre. Those who live in the Ten Chain areas of Idukki hydro electric project should be issued title deeds as per the 1964 rule, it says.
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Those areas to be wrongly entered in the register as cardamom cultivated area under the resurvey of 1975-'76 should also be issued title deeds. Those farmers who had purchased land from the Adivasis are deserved to be issued title deeds, it says adding that steps should be taken for renewing the rights (`pattakarar') over the Cardamom Hill Reserve areas and should be allowed for tax remission. It also said that those who had complains over the resurvey which is not yet completed should be allowed to tax remission.
The document says that steps should be taken to find a solution to the land issues in Mankulam and the government should desist from the move to add in the land bank those lands that are being cultivated by farming community for years.
It also says that steps should be taken to legalise the budget proposal that five percent of the estate land could be used for other purposes. The document also suggests that the State government should take the step to legally fight the case filed by an environmental group in the apex court to declare Cardamom Hill Reserve as forest land areas.
The document was released here at the farmers' rights declaration convention held on Friday.