A largely attended one day convention of Jammu and Kashmir Kisan Tehreek District Reasi presided over by its district President Sohan Lal was held at Reasi to discuss and deliberate upon the pathetic condition of the farmers, non-availability of fertilizers during peak season, eviction of poor people from state/common land, alarming unemployment problem, unabated price rise etc. Among others Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, senior leader CPI(M) and MLA also addressed the convention.While addressing the convention, Tarigami said that it is very unfortunate, though not unbecoming of the state government that it has tacitly allowed big land sharks to occupy, encroach and fraudulently transfer the state land throughout the length and breadth of the state. In the capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu, other major towns and rural areas, the priced public land has either been encroached by the influential and the rich, even without technical formalities or has been acquired for peanuts.
Instead of investigating into this scandal and launching a sustained campaign to get back this land which comes to thousands of hectares, the state administration has come down on marginal farmers and poor landless villagers in distant areas of district Reasi in Jammu. The villagers who have been either cultivating small patches of land for their livelihood or have constructed residential hutments are being evicted in the tyrannical feudal manner. He urged the administration to stop the forcible eviction and resolve the issue after listening the objections and grievances of the affected. Needless to say that the stubborn way to deal with the situation will have very negative and unwanted consequences.G.N.Malik, General Secretary Jammu and Kashmir Kisan Tehreek said that promises for return of “achhe din for farmers and working people” have turned to be an illusion and nightmare as the condition of this section of people has, in fact, deteriorated during the last two and half years rule of BJP-led union government. The prices of the essential commodities have escalated vastly while as the purchasing power of large sections of the society has diminished terribly owing to retrenchment of labour force due to demonetization. He also urged upon the administration to immediately disburse the compensation in favour of the farmers whose crops were dmaged by the hailstorm for which the money has already been released by the government.
Kishore Kumar, President of J&K Kisan Tehreek asserted that all farmers across the state should be issued KCCs to enable them to avail the loans from the financial institutions and banks and ensure speedy implementation of Crop Insurance Scheme. Sham Prasad Kesar, Regional Secretary, CPI(M) Jammu exhorted that united struggle is the only way to pressurize the government to resolve the problems of the working people. Among others, Om Prakash, President, J&K CITU, Sohan Lal senior kKsan leader also addressed the convention.Resolutions regarding alarming unemployment in the state, unabated price rise especially of essential commodities, uninterrupted corruption practices at various levels of administration, non-availability of fertilizers during peak farming seasons, inclusion of deserving families under BPL category, roll back of recent steep hike in the prices of food items under APL category, procurement of maize and rice from surplus producing areas, free electricity to Agriculture pumping stations on the pattern of Punjab state enhancing of public investment in agriculture sector were moved in the convention and adopted unanimously. District Committee with Sohan Lal as its president was constituted in the convention. (CNS)