After UP, V P Singh to take up Haryana farmers' cause

Chandigarh, July 21 (UNI) After their arrest in Uttar Pradesh for spearheading a protest against the acquisition of agricultural land, former Prime Minister V P Singh and other socialist leaders will now hold a rally for the same cause at Narnaul in southern Haryana on August five.

Taking up the cudgels for Haryana farmers, whose holdings were being acquired ''at throwaway prices'' for the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Mr V P Singh and other socialist leaders including Sharad Yadav, P C Thomas and Raj Babbar would address 'Lalkar Rally, being organised by independent Haryana MLA Naresh Yadav.

''The rally will be massive where the farmers will cry foul against the misuse of land acquisition act by the government to facilitate the Ambanis and other big industrialists,'' Mr Yadav, told reporters at a press conference here today.

It may be recalled that Mr V P Singh and Raj Babbar were arrested along with other leaders by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in UP after their protest rally against the land acquisition by the Reliance earlier this month.

Mr Naresh Yadav, the MLA from Ateli, has also been carrying out a 'rath yatra' against the land acquisition for the SEZ in the dictricts of Mahendargarh, Gurgaon and Rewari.

The SEZ would not do any good to the people of Haryana and rather the farmers would suffer a major socio-economic setback in the name of SEZ, he said.

''At least 25 villages in the state's southern districts will straightaway vanish and the farmers will have to migrate to the neighbouring Rajasthan for survival once their land is acquired,'' Mr Yadav said.

These southern districts of Haryana were already facing severe shortage of even drinking water, he said, expressing his doubts over the feasibility of SEZ in the region.

Besides the land acquisition issue, Mr Yadav has also been raising his voice for the completion of SYL canal which, he said, was the lifeline of the southern districts.

He reiterated that the Congress had failed to provide water to the people of Haryana through the SYL canal despite the fact that the party was ruling in Punjab and Haryana and also at the Centre.

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