Land reforms, Jan Satyagraha laid to rest in Agra
12 Oct 2012 7:03 AM IST
Lakhanram had walked about 800 kilometres when he reached Agra, an adivasi from Jasphur district in Chattisgarh, Lakhanram had a smile on his face when Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh and Ekta Parishad president P V Rajagopal, signed the agreement on land reforms on Thursday. Waving the green and white flag of the parishad, Lakhanram now believes that there is a glimmer of hope and thousands of adivasis like him would now be able to own a small piece of land.
'There is no work in our place, we end up working for twelve hours a day on some body's else field and all we are paid is Rs 80, how do you think we can survive?' questions Lakhanram, who has eight members in his family and is a landless agricultural labourer.
In the agreement that was reached between the ministry of rural development and Ekta Parishad, the ministry has stated that it would work towards giving statutory backing to provision of agricultural land to the landless poor in the backward districts. There would also be a provision of homestead rights to the landless and shelter less poor of rural areas. Realising its failure in not being able to hold a single meeting of the national council for land reforms since last four and a half years, the ministry in its agreement has said that a draft on national land policy will be brought out within the next four to six months. A task force on land reforms has been constituted and it will be headed by the union minister of rural development.
' The first meeting of the task force will be held on 17th of this month and there will be eleven members in this task force' informed Ramesh. The task force will have six members from the government side which will include representatives of central government, state governments and five members from civil society organisations.
'There is no work in our place, we end up working for twelve hours a day on some body's else field and all we are paid is Rs 80, how do you think we can survive?' questions Lakhanram, who has eight members in his family and is a landless agricultural labourer.
In the agreement that was reached between the ministry of rural development and Ekta Parishad, the ministry has stated that it would work towards giving statutory backing to provision of agricultural land to the landless poor in the backward districts. There would also be a provision of homestead rights to the landless and shelter less poor of rural areas. Realising its failure in not being able to hold a single meeting of the national council for land reforms since last four and a half years, the ministry in its agreement has said that a draft on national land policy will be brought out within the next four to six months. A task force on land reforms has been constituted and it will be headed by the union minister of rural development.
' The first meeting of the task force will be held on 17th of this month and there will be eleven members in this task force' informed Ramesh. The task force will have six members from the government side which will include representatives of central government, state governments and five members from civil society organisations.
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