The All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha has demanded that the new law for Land Acquisition being proposed by the Union Rural Development minister should include a complete ban on forced eviction of farmers.
Forced acquisition is a colonial concept and in India even erstwhile Kings did not have the right to evict a farmer even if he had not paid his tax and dues, said Secretary AIKMS Ashish Mital.
Often the kings altered the direction of the walls of their forts in order to avoid occupying fertile land. On the other hand to deprive the people of their rights on nature and livelihood and to levy taxes on them, the British enacted the Land Acquisition Act 1894 and the various Forest Conservation Acts, etc.
India is a agrarian country with possibility of developing self-sufficiency by having 3 to 4 crops on all fields and developing the local markets, he said.
Agricultural land needs protection and agriculture needs development. India produces only 230 million tones of food grain for 1.2 billion people with very low productivity. “Way to India’s progress lies in protecting and developing farming, not in converting farm land into real estate property for multi-national corporate-builder- bureaucrat-politician nexus,” Mital added.
