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Himachal apple farmers stage protest outside secretariat in Shimla
Addressing the crowd, the convener of the Apple Federation of India and former MLA Rakesh Singha criticised both the state and judiciary for allegedly ignoring Constitutional rights
Farmers, primarily apple growers, backed by various trade unions, women groups and apple growers’ organisations on Tuesday held a protest against land evictions, deforestation of fruit-bearing trees, and government policies, outside the Himachal Pradesh Secretariat in Shimla.
The protest came a day after the Supreme Court stayed a high court order directing the removal of fruit-bearing orchards from encroached forest lands.
The joint protest, organised by the Himachal Pradesh Kisan Sabha, Apple Federation of India and the Himachal Pradesh Seb Utpadak Sangh, demanded an immediate halt to the eviction of farmers, stop the cutting of fruit-bearing trees, allocation of 5 to 10 bighas of land to landless farmers, regularisation of settlements and orchards, and Amendments to the Forest Conservation Act to protect cultivators’ rights.
Addressing the crowd, the convener of the Apple Federation of India and former MLA Rakesh Singha criticised both the state and judiciary for allegedly ignoring Constitutional rights.
Addressing the protestors, Singha said,“Was the Himachal Pradesh government not aware of these orders? Was the high court unaware? Why are the poor being tortured? Do people know how expensive it is to approach the Supreme Court? People had to mortgage their land to get justice.”
Calling the current approach “lawless and blind”, Singha said the protest would escalate. “We are not afraid of a long battle. We’ve fought before and will fight again. We’ve come to hear what’s in the government’s mind. If they satisfy us, fine. Otherwise, we will speak our minds and take this fight forward,” he added.
During the demonstration, Sanjay Chauhan of Seb Utpadak Sangh issued a direct warning to the Himachal Pradesh government and strongly criticised the chief secretary and the additional chief secretary (ACS) of the forest department. He alleged that the bureaucracy has taken control of the government, and under the pretext of court orders, the hard work of farmers and orchardists is being destroyed. Not only were their trees uprooted, but many were evicted from their land.
Govt will take up concerns with the Centre: CM
A delegation from the ‘Seb Utpadak Sangh’, led by Singha, called on chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to apprise him of their various demands.
The CM assured that the demands would be considered sympathetically. He said, “The government has already approached the Supreme Court seeking relief for them.”
He assured that no tree felling would be allowed following the Apex Court’s stay order, and directed the forest department to conduct an inquiry into the reports of tree felling in Karsog and Kullu valleys after the court’s directive. The CM also said that he would raise the issue with the Union minister of environment, forests and climate change, and the state government would formulate a policy in consultation with all stakeholders to address the concerns of the apple growers.
Sukhu said the state has urged the Union government to allow the allocation of one to five bighas of land for the rehabilitation of disaster-affected families, who have been rendered landless. With 68% of the state under forest cover, he emphasised the need to relax forest norms to facilitate rehabilitation.
