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Farmers hold shirtless protests, demand amendment in Land Act
The sloganeering farmers, led by Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni), held protests in Karnal, Yamunanagar and Ambala and submitted a memorandum of their demands to the respective district authorities
: Farmers in various places in Haryana on Tuesday held shirtless protests, demanding the government to bring an amendment in the Land Act, retaining their ‘ownership’ of the village common land that they have been cultivating for decades.
The sloganeering farmers, led by Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni), held protests in Karnal, Yamunanagar and Ambala and submitted a memorandum of their demands to the respective district authorities.
Ajay Rana, president of BKU (Charuni), Karnal district, accused the government of snatching the village common land- jumla malkan, mustafa malkan and deh samlat- from farmers by changing mutation in the name of panchayats and urban local bodies.
The Supreme Court had on April 7 ruled that the deh shamlat and jumla malkan land or common land in villages can neither be repartitioned among the proprietors nor sold.
The farmers demanded the government to bring an amendment in the Land Act keeping in view the Supreme Court judgement on the deh-shamlat (village common) land.
The farmers also alleged that after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the state government had issued an order on June 21 in which it gave instructions to the concerned authorities to transfer the rights of the common land from farmers to panchayats.
In Yamunanagar, the protesters, led by district president Sanju Gudiana, took out the protest from Kanhaiya Chowk to the district commissioner’s (DC) office.
Gundiana said that they submitted a memorandum of their demands to the tehsildar. They also burnt copies of the Supreme Court order and a Haryana government notification on the issue.
Nirmal Singh, a protesting farmer from Yamunanagar, said that farmers have been cultivating on these lands for the past several decades and they will be left without a livelihood if they lose the land holdings following the Supreme Court ruling.
He said the protests will continue until the government brings an amendment in the Land Act by calling a special session of the state assembly.
In Ambala, the union members sat outside the DC office and raised slogans. They also demanded compensation for the crop loss due to rain and dwarfing phenomena.
The farmers in the state have earlier on August 25 and 26 held protests on the issue at the residences of all ministers of the state, but failed to evoke any response from the government.
