South Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers
Movements
(SICCFM)
636, Ideal
Homes Township,
Raja Rajeswari
Nagar, Bangalore -5600098. Karnataka.
Telephone +91
94444089543
Email: siccfm@gmail.com
13th September, 2012.
Land is Life.
South Indian farmer’s response to
the Land acquisition bill( LARR bill 2012)
At this point, people’s
movements of SICCFM are not willing to enter into discussions on the details of
compensation and rehabilitation packages because we do not agree with the
fundamental premise of this bill. This
bill seeks to handover our farmlands to private corporations in the name of
“public purpose”. The wording of this bill is so deceptive that almost anything
could be construed as a public good and it falsely seems like farmers have
become partners in India's corporate development.
But as farmers and poor rural
people we ask - what purpose will be served to our communities and our
development by a private hospital or university which we cannot afford, a
luxury hotel, a golf course or a formula one race track, a multi-lane highway
where a company will collect toll tax for 36 years while we have no roads in
our villages, or a mine that kills our forests and destroys our health? Most
importantly, we ourselves have the right and ability to decide what is good for
our development and demand that our own local institutions – gram sabhas give
their full consent and decide whether a project constitutes our development and
public purpose. We cannot accept some random figure of 80% consent or
“consultation” as an excuse for democracy.
Just because corporations are
complaining about higher costs to their projects does not in anyway mean that
the bill is automatically good for the farmers. In fact the cost of such a bill
will be even steeper for India's rural communities and our nation’s ability to
feed itself. At this time our nation is
reeling under coalgate scam, 2G spectrum scam, paid media scam and under no
circumstances can we be fooled once again to let the government act as our
trustee or custodian because history and facts have proven otherwise.
Moreover the government has
already acquired thousands of acres of lands that are lying idle all across the
country. The government has all kinds of land banks everywhere. These lands
were taken from farmers previously and now have not been used or illegally
converted to some other use. In many cases farmers are yet to see any
compensation. Rehabilitation has not been received by millions of Indians
displaced by corporate development. Why then are we making a law to carry out
further acquisitions? What about using the land already taken and fulfilling people’s
dues from the past first?
Lastly, what is the use of such
a bill when it is planning to exempt 13 out of 16 laws that acquire lands such
as SEZ act and mining act? This trend of farm land grabbing and diversion of
water to industry is legally ongoing all over the country. This is having a
direct bearing on our ability to produce food. In the case of just one project,
the Yamuna expressway alone we will lose the ability to produce 100,000 tonnes
of food grain a year. Thousands of acres
are earmarked to be acquired in all the fertile food producing states of
India. When 50% of our children are
malnutritioned and our hunger levels are worse than the poorest countries of
Sub Saharan Africa, our government should be acquiring land for food security
and not rampant industrialization.
Given this situation we do not
agree to give our lands unless it is for real public purpose decided by us.
Here are our current demands:-
1.
Suspend all ongoing land
acquisitions
2.
Bring out a white paper of all
the past land acquisitions nationally and what is being done with that land
3.
We demand a national level
debate on “public purpose”
4.
A complete ban on acquisition
for private corporations
These demands were formed on 9th
Sep in Bangalore where SICCFM has held an open discussion on the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement bill (LA&RR bill) along with many farmers’ organizations and allies.
Signed by:
Karnataka Rajya Ryota
Sangh( KRRS) (Karanataka).
Thamizhaga Vivasayigal
Sangam( Tamil Nadu),
Uzhavar Ulaippalar
Katchi(Tamil Nadu),
Uzhavar Periyakkam(Tamil
Nadu),
Katchi Sarpartra Thamizhaga
Vivasayigal Sangam(Tamil Nadu),
Kongunadu Vivasayigal
Sangam( Tamil Nadu),
Kerala Coconut Farmers
Association (KCFA)( Kerala)
Adivasi Gothra Maha
Sabha(Kerala),
For further details
S.Kannaiyan.
+919444989543
sukannaiyan69@gmail.com
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