Dharna against Displacement and LAA & R&R Bills-Follow Up and Call for Action
Mukta Srivastava
SanghrashTime to follow up and take the Struggle Against Land Acquisition Ahead
Dear Friends,The three day agitation and dharna opposing Displacement and the R&R and Land Acquisition Bills, in front of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi's Jantar Mantar saw people's representatives from 14 states and from more than 83 different organisations across the country converging under the banner of Sangharsh. A joint protest against the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, the Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill, the SEZ Act 2005, the CZM Act, and other draconian anti-people and anti-environmental laws is being built up.
The Jan Sansad (People's Parliament) slammed the Union and State Government for following destructive development paradigms and came down heavily upon the cruel and inhuman uprooting of Adivasi, Dalits, farmers, fish workers, women, hawkers, slum dwellers, unorganised workers and others from their land, natural and livelihood resources, thereby violating their right to life. The three days also saw meetings with several key central ministers and legislators. A detailed report of the dharna is attached.
Hundreds of people present in the dharna have already written letters to Shri Kalyan Singh, Chairperson of Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Land Acquisition (Amendment) and R&R Bills, registering their strong disapproval of the two bills and urging him to negate the bills in their present form.
Now we need to strongly assert our opposition to these new Bills in the very places where we are struggling against displacement. We need to make our positions on these clear to the Members of Parliament from our respective areas and make it clear to them that they will have to listen to us or the parties will have to face the people's wrath in the coming general elections.
To this end, we request you to send as many letters as possible to your local MP or MPs clarifying your position on the Bill and try to meet them as well. We are attaching a draft letter that you can use for this purpose by adding details of your struggles/organisation. Do send a copy of this letter to both Sh.Kalyan Singh, who is Chairperson of the Standing committee on Rural Development which is considering the two Bills at the moment, and to Ms.Sudesh Luthra who is the official in Lok Sabha Secretariat who is handling communication for the Standing committee.(Their addresses are given in the draft letter). The attached draft is in English but we will be sending you a Hindi draft soon. Please do contact us if you do not receive the Hindi draft in the next few days.
The Dhrana had also decided that 25th June of this year be marked as Sangharsh Diwas by holding simultaneous protests across the country. This is also to commemorate the Emergency and the times of undeclared Emergency we are living through. We urge you to organise protests in your respective villages, towns & cities on this day as well and let the central and state governments know that we will not allow them to go ahead with the anti-people projects that uproot and displace people in the name of development. Do share information with the secretariat on whatever action you plan locally as that would enable us to coordinate information for other groups and media better.
In Solidarity
Sridevi Panikkar, Rajendra Ravi and Madhuresh
(9868099304/011-26680883/9868200316/9818905316)
On behalf of Sangharsh Secretariat & Coordination Committee
Attachments:
Report of Dharna in April
Draft letter for MPs
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Mukta Srivastava
National Alliance of People's Movements