By TCN News,
Thiruvananthapuram: Welfare Party workers and supporters took a Land Conservation March to the Kerala Secretariat today. Protesters carried placards and banners demanding comprehensive land reform acts and conservation steps by the government.
The march was flagged off from Museum Junction by Fr. Abraham Joseph, national vice-president and was led by state leaders of the Party. Inaugurating the public meeting in front of the Secretariat, Party national vice-President and former Karnataka minister for social welfare and Kannada language, Dr. B.T. Lalita Naik expressed anguish and grief that in a state like Kerala that enacted revolutionary land reforms three decades back, more than two and a half lakh families are still without land.
Naik wondered how in a state known for total literacy and social justice, more than 50% of its SC and about 70% of the ST population remain landless whereas lakhs of hectares of public land are under the illegal occupation of big estate agents and companies.
She demanded to take back all government lands of which the tenure period is over and take strict penal action against those who violated lease agreement conditions and distribute all these lands to landless people. The Party made strong demand to give preference to those who are ready to till and cultivate the land.
The agitation for land will soon be extended to leased lands, warned Dr. Kootil Mohammedali, the state president. He stated that no special privilege can be granted to Tata and Harrison Plantations who have occupied thousands of acres of land. Regarding the land issue, attitude of left and right fronts of Kerala are alike, continued Dr. Kootil.
P.C. Hamza, national general secretary alleged that due to the negligent and passive attitude of state and central governments, around 25 lakh acres of land donated to Bhoodan movement of Acharya Vinobha Bhave have been lost to land mafia. He demanded to take effective steps to retake the land and initiate penal action against the officials involved in this land scandal.
The other demands made by the Party include putting an end to the connivance of the government to torpedo the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Field and Wetland Act, rolling back moves to sanction 5% of plantation land to tourist purposes, steps to preserve ecologically fragile land, strict adherence to Land Utilization Act and abandoning policies that are helpful to the tourism sector lobby to encroach the coastal belt.