Kisan Sabha will march to the Vidhan Sabha on March 20 with the issues of farmers

 ‘To save the land of poor farmers, Himachal Kisan Sabha will march to the Vidhan Sabha on March 20 in thousands from the district and block levels across the state to place their demands before the government.’ In a statement issued on Saturday, the state president of Himachal Pradesh Kisan Sabha, Dr. Kuldeep Tanwar said that issues related to land in Himachal, especially ‘Shamlat, Khudra-o-Darakhtan, Malikiyat Sarkar, Chakotedar, Nautod’ regularization, non-implementation of Forest Rights Act in tribal areas, displaced Gaddis, Gujras, etc. will also be raised in the huge rally.
He told that in Himachal, the common farmer is left with only 2 to 4 bighas of cultivable land. Out of only 06 lakh hectares of cultivable land in the state, 1 lakh hectares of land has been submerged in various water projects. 10 lakh 57 thousand farmers do farming on the remaining 5 lakh hectares of land. There are very few government jobs for lakhs of educated youth. Except for some border areas of Himachal, there are no industries where the youth can get employment options. He told that the eviction drive in the state is proving to be a problem for the farmers.
They say that previous state governments made efforts to regularise the land occupied by small and marginal farmers for agriculture, horticulture and house construction in 2000, 2002, 2015 and 2018 but did not get permission from the central government.
These special circumstances in Himachal have arisen due to the Himachal Government’s notification of 1952, the Forest Protection Act of 1980, the National Forest Policy of 1988, the Supreme Court’s directive issued to all states in the ‘TN Godavarman’ case on 12 December 1996 and the Forest Rights Act of 2006. On the other hand, under the ‘infrastructural’ ‘development’ taking place in Himachal, farmers’ land and government land are being acquired. This includes ‘national highways, hydropower projects, transmission lines, mining, airports, railway lines, cement industries’.
He said that Himachal government should take appropriate action in this matter and by passing a resolution in this assembly session, these issues should be raised with the central government and the Supreme Court and a permanent solution should be found.