People's Democracy

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Kisan Sabha Organises A Two Day Seminar

Tikender Singh Panwar

THE Himachal kisan sabha state committee organised a two day seminar on the issues of the peasantry in kullu on July 21- 22, 2007. One hundred and thirty five delegates from ten districts attended the seminar. The seminar was organised following the all India guidelines on the tasks on the kisan front, and applying it to the realities of the state and challenges on the agricultural and horticultural front.

The all India perspective and a paper on the challenges in front of the peasantry was placed by the general secretary of Himachal kisan sabha, Dr onkar Shad. The report highlighted that the total land in the state which is ploughable is just 10 percent.Majority of the area, of nearly 66 percent of the total land is under forest.In the state, 69 percent of the people live on agriculture . The contribution to the GDP is just 25 percent (2004-05). The marginal and poor peasants comprise 86.34 percent, whereas they possess 50.7 percent of land.Upon this, the total land holding has increased to over 9 lakhs, with 10,000 every year adding. In such a situation the poor peasants have also encroached upon government land. This number is estimated to be more than one lakh as the previous BJP governbment had in its bid to come back to power invited applications from encroachers for their regulation.

The list that was supplied proved an evidence against the peasantry and the Congress government started issuing fresh notices of eviction of the kisans. In the last four years thousands of apple trees were chopped down by the government in the name of evicting encroachers.

On the other hand the government is leasing large tracts of land (2000 acres) to tea estate companies in kangra. 80 bighas of land in the tribal district of Lahaul & Spiti is being given to big landed estates for potato cultivation. Similarly Ski village by Ford company will be constructed in the famous hill destination of Manali. Land is also made available to the three private universities which are coming up in the state. Three SEZ`s in Kangra, Solan and Una have been allotted.

Whatever subsidies the kisans used to get have been withdrawn, especially on seeds, fertilisers, packing materials, irrigation etc. New seeds, medicines and saplings are bought from private players, who are not only charging exorbitantly, but also selling spurious seeds. There are six cold stores with 8000 tonne capacity and three outside the state with a capacity of 8256 tonne capacity. The government has given it on lease to private companies. 40000 tonne capacity fruit processing units in the state are being handed over to big corporate giants like Reliance. The Agro Processing and Marketing Committee (APMC) act was amended in the year 2005, which has flooded the markets with private players. Adani and Reliance have directly entered the market. The have opened CA cold stores where the kisans are not allowed to store their produce, on the contrary heavy subsidy is taken from the government to construct these stores.

The timber disposal (TD) rights of the peasantry has been snatched with the court unnecessarily poking its nose in the name of ecology. The state has immense hydel potential. But the projects which are coming up are displacing the peasantry to a large scale. With a rehabilitation policy in favour of big companies and contractors, havoc is played with the kisans who are losing their land. In the state 33.4 percent of kisans are debt ridden, which means 3,03,000 families . Out of these, 91.6 percent are small and marginal.

A total of 2301 panchayats are under severe threat from wild animals including wild boars, monkeys and stray cattle. These issues were discussed threadbare by delegates. 18 delegates participated in the meeting. Valuable suggestions were made. These include, scrapping of section 11 of the draconian British period law of Land Acquisition Act, of having a permanent rehabilitation policy, crop insurance and saving the crop from wild animals.

A paper on the issue of land was presented by Tikender Singh Panwar, state president of Himachal Kisan Sabha. The paper noted that though land reforms in the state did not taken place like in Bengal, Kerela and Tripura, still land, to a fairly large extent has been distributed in the state. There are very few landlords in the state. Of the total landholdings, 86.28 percent have less than 2 hectares of land and comprise 50 percent of total land. The rich or the big peasant who have more than 20 hectares of land are just 0.42 percent and occupy 6.45 percent of the total land. The land holdings are continuously increasing, with the figure crossing nine lakh. Sixty percent of the total land is under forest. To sustain the peasantry on the present available land is impossible. There was a big service sector in the state. More than three lakh government employees and almost half the number of daily wage and central government employees could run the households in the state. Now, with the FRBM act and the neo-liberal policies nearly 35,000 vacant posts are either being abolished or not filled. This alongwith other factors has led to a situation where the peasant is forced to encroach upon government land. The number is no less than one lakh. Of course there are big as well as small and marginal farmers who have done so. The government on the pretext that after the nationalisation of forests it has no choice but to evict the peasants, is actually targeting the poor and not touching the big fish. The Kisan Sabha had opposed the move and physically prevented the eviction drive, because of which the move has been stopped, though temporarily.

There is another threat that is coming from the big houses. Hydel projects, SEZ`s, cement plants and such others are threatening the limited land, which the kisans possess. A resolution on the menace of monkeys, wild animals and stray cattle was also passed. The Himachal Kisan Sabha has decided to hold a demonstration outside the office's of tehsil, and block officers on August 10, 2007. Thousands are expected to participate.

Actually, the government has even agreed for scientific culling of wild animals and monkeys. But as usual the elitist activists led by Maneka Gandhi and co have decided to oppose it. The Himachal Kisan Sabha has decided to picket them whenever they visit the state. The seminar was concluded with an affirmative voice to champion the issues of the kisans.