Gandhians to march for landless

Madurai, Jul 12: Spearheading the demand of land for the landless poor, Gandhians all over the country have decided to take out a massive padayatra from Gwalior to the national capital in October.

The march by over 25000 people, which would pass through four states, was aimed at bringing back the issue of land reform on the national agenda without any further delay, Ekta Parishad founder and Gandhi Peace Foundation vice-president P V Rajagopal told newspersons here yesterday.

Establishment of a Central Land Authority, Fast Track Courts for expeditious settlement of land disputes, Single Window System to help issuance of land related documents were three main objectives of the programme, he said.

Preceding the 'Long March' would be the 'Chetavani' (warning) yatra from Gwalior to New Delhi, to be commenced on Gandhi Jayanthi this year to sound a warning bell.

Explaining the rationale behind the yatras, he said Land has gradually ceased to be a state-level issue though it continued to be in the State List in the Constitution. Many legislations, including the Forest Act, 1980 and the Mining Act, have vested more powers with the Centre. Thus such issues pertaining to land could no more be addressed locally.

Though the previous state-level programmes like the 3000 km yatra in Madhya Pradesh, 2000 km march in Orissa and other states have resulted in the constitution of Task Forces or Commissions on Land Reforms, they have failed to bring the issue to the attention of the Centre, he observed.

Land reform which remained a priority area till the second five year plan, had been either diluted or ignored afterwards, it was pointed out. In the last decade, the thrust has changed to Contract Farming and Corporate Farming, signalling reverse land reform, he regretted.

UNI