CPI protests against land bill, dubs it 'anti-farmer'

From our Staff Correspondent

DIBRUGARH, May 14: More than hundred members of Communist Party of India (CPI), Dibrugarh District Council, on Thursday blocked NH- 37 in protest against the Central Government’s initiative to introduce the new land law which was  not only ‘anti-farmer’ but indirectly disastrous for peasants as well as for the agriculture sector.  The decision of tionwide tiol Highway blockade on Thursday was resolved at the 22nd CPI Mahasanmmilan  at Puduchery.

The  British introduced the land law in 1894 and since then no authority, even the respective central governments of post-Independence era, took any  initiative to amend  it  keeping the interest of peasants and the agriculture sector in view.

However, the second UPA government under Prime Minister Dr Monmohan Singh had amended it and replaced the same with a new Land Bill so that the Indian peasants could get immense rights on their respective lands.

 But the rendra Modi-led NDA government, since beginning   has been trying to  reintroduce the  1894’s land  law replacing the amended one of the UPA government  just to  hand over the  farmers’ land to  tiol as well as foreign corporate houses, without taking consent of the farmers in cognizance.  The CPI, Dibrugarh district council, in a press communiqué, expressed apprehension saying that the new land law of BJP government would not affect the life of poor peasants in the country but also threaten food security.

The meeting, held just before the tiol highway blockade, was addressed, amongst others, by CPI district secretary, Jatin Saikia, assistant secretary Diganta Phukan and Dolon Sonowal. Speakers in their respective speeches criticized the Modi government’s recent anti –farmer and anti-labour policy and vouched to continue their struggle for the interest of peasants and labourers of the State.