I/III. http://www.firstpost.com/business/kisaan-virodhi-narendra-modi-land-bill-maybe-political-suicide-for-the-government-2166149.html
Kisaan Virodhi, Narendra Modi? Land Bill may be political suicide for govt by MK Venu Mar 21, 2015 18:10 IST There are millions of taxi drivers in India's major metros who come from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and they invariably visit their families in the rural belt during sowing or harvest season. A constant story one hears from them is how agriculture is becoming less profitable with the rising costs of inputs such as urea, electricity and water. Chandrabhushan Rai drives a private taxi in Mumbai and sends money -- about Rs.6000 per month -- to his family in Balia to help them sustain their monthly expenses which includes a modest private school education for his only son. His has about 5 bighas of land and asserts that agriculture income alone is just about sufficient to meet their food and milk requirements, leaving a very small surplus every month. Chandrabhushan argues that most agriculture households in UP or Bihar work on less than 5 acres of land and have one person working in the cities to supplement the family income. Without this income it is impossible to sustain the growing family expenses, especially on educating children in private schools and paying for health and social ceremonies such as marraige in the family. Chandrabhushan's story may get repeated endlessly by thousands of other private taxi drivers in Delhi and Mumbai who come from agriculture families of UP and Bihar. Narendra Modi. AFP.Narendra Modi. AFP. Chandrabhushan says he had voted for Modi in the hope that there would be some improvement in the lives of small farm households. Especially since Modi had explicitly promised that farmers will get 50% profit margin over and above their cost of inputs. While that promise never got fulfilled, the farmers' situation had worsened because of unseasonal rains and the big fall in prices of agriculture commodities. This was the one time the small farmer was expecting some relief. The first budget by Arun Jaitley had created a small price stabilisation fund to help farmers deal with the collapse in agri market prices. One is not sure whether that fund, though very small, is even operational today. "Modi made big promises but he has disappointed us," says Chandrabhushan. No wonder the opposition parties are mounting a joint campaign against the BJP with the slogan ," Kisaan Virodhi, Narendra Modi". The BJP is fast losing the perception battle on the land ordinance which seeks to acquire land from farmers without consent for private-public partnership projects. The tragedy for Modi is he doesn't have the full support of either his allies or the Sangh Parivar outfits like Bhartiya Kisaan Sangh and Swadeshi Jaagran Manch. The tragedy gets compounded as the Land Ordinance debate comes at a time of the worst farm distress in a decade. There are newspaper reports that farm families in western Uttar Pradesh are suffering so much that they have begun to withdraw their children from private schools and colleges as they cant pay the fees anymore. The sugar mills in UP are yet to pay the farmers' dues. News reports suggest a crash in the wheat prices in the northern belt, onion prices in Maharashtra. Cotton prices have also collapsed as China has halved its import of cotton from India. Observers say farmers' suicides, already rampant, will increase further in the coming months. In the middle of such an acute farm crises, the Modi government is engaged in a needless stand off with the opposition on the land acquisition ordinance which has been imposed on the farmers in the name of driving fast industrial development. A wiser approach for Narendra Modi is not to stand on ego and let a Parliamentary committee look afresh at the land ordinance. In the meantime, he should address the immediate crises faced by the farmers across India. The government must expand the price stabilisation fund for the farmers and bring many more items under the minimum support price regime. The farmers must also be given a one time relief on loan repayment. If the banks can postpone repayment of loans worth several lakh crore rupees by big industry, the farmers must also be given some relief. For far too long, industry has wrested concessions from the government and public sector banks in the name of " creating growth and employment". All that we have witnessed in the past decade is a long phase of jobless growth. High GDP growth of 8% plus has not ensured stability in the job market. The BJP's key economic plank was to reverse jobless growth by focusing more on rural employment driven by agriculture-linked small industries and services. We don't see or hear about the execution details of this much touted strategy enunciated by the BJP in its manifesto. We hardly hear anything about a broader agriculture policy framework from the BJP's agriculture minister who has such a low profile that most people find it hard to recall his name. If Modi doesn't act fast he will soon face the most resounding rejection in rural India. II. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/anna-hazare-calls-for-nation-wide-jail-bharo-against-land-bill-akhil-gogoi-floats-political-party/ NATION SATURDAY, MAR 21, 2015 Anna Hazare calls for nation-wide "jail-bharo" against Land Bill; Akhil Gogoi floats political party Written by Samudra Gupta Kashyap | Guwahati | Updated: March 21, 2015 3:12 am Noted Gandhian Anna Hazare on Friday announced a three-month long intensive campaign starting April in order to launch a country-wide "jail-bharo" agitation of peasants to stop the government from going ahead with acquisition of farmers' land. Hazare, who was speaking at the fourth convention of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) at Diroi-Rangoli of Sivasagar district in upper Assam, said he would organize as many as 40 massive rallies in ten states across the country in the next three months to build up a strong resistance to the BJP-led government's land acquisition policy. RELATED Govt Trying To 'Mislead' People On Land Act: Anna Hazare Centre's Land Acquisition Bill Is Anti-Farmer, Says Arvind Kejriwal At Anna Protest Rally Anna's Second Coming: 'This Govt Like The Raj' "Six months have passed since the BJP came to power. But where is the achche din? The farmers have not seen any achche din, nor have other common citizens. Achche din has come only for the capitalists," Anna Hazare said. He also said that while the Land Aqusition Act enacted by the previous Congress-led government in 2013 had a provision of taking consent of 80 per cent of farmers for acquisitioning land for private companies, the present BJP-led government had done away with this clause in the new Land bill. "We cannot allow this to happen," he said. Anna Hazare also pointed out that the country's farm land had not been mapped and classified even after 68 years of Independence. "One of the demands of the 'jail-bharo' movement will be classification of farm land into six categories and to ensure that the best four categories of farm land is not transferred for industrial use. Only waste land in the fifth and sixth categories may be given, and that too on lease, for setting up industries," he added. Akhil Gogoi floats political party Meanwhile, Akhil Gogoi, leader of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), an Assam-based group fighting for land rights for farmers, on Friday floated a new political party called 'Gana-mukti Sangram, Asam' and vowed to ensure defeat of the BJP and Congress in the 2016 assembly elections in the state. "We are not going to contest in the 2016 Assam assembly election. But we will definitely work towards ensuring the defeat of both BJP and Congress," out-going KMSS president Akhil Gogoi, who was named one of the four convenors of the new political party said. "Our new revolutionary party wants to root out capitalism and establish socialism in the true sense of the term," he said. First Published on: March 21, 20153:08 am III. http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/economy/gst-land-bill-top-priority-when-parliament-resumes-fm_1335900.html Mar 21, 2015, 04.20 PM IST | Source: CNBC-TV18 GST, land bill top priority when Parliament resumes: FM The government's focus would be on pushing through the Land Acquisition Bill as well the goods and services (CST) constitutional amendment when the Parliament resumes following a recess from today in the Budget session, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. ... There is the land bill and I quite understand that the challenges in the land bill will be far more than the current three legislations, which we passed but I am one of those who firmly believe that the land bill is in favour of rural India. Without this law to develop infrastructure in terms of rural roads, irrigation, rural electrification is not possible. To create highways which pass through rural areas, which are a part of rural infrastructure, electrification will not be possible. For housing, for poor and affordable housing where there is a large-scale migration from rural areas to urban centres or to suburban centres is not possible and therefore it is extremely important in the interest of people living in the rural areas that this bill be passed. The industrial corridor as against the industrial hub runs through rural areas and wherever it runs through, there is going to be development on both sides of the road. It will be a narrow industrial corridor. The values of the rural land will go up because of development, additionally rural youth will get jobs in the industries located close by. So it is extremely important that this piece is passed and we will try and convince the opposition parties as we convinced them in the other three legislations that they are in larger national interest. Q: So far what has happened? You are confident, you will be able to convince the opposition? A: I have a faith in parliamentary wisdom. After all the insurance has been passed, the mining has been passed, the coal allocations has been passed and there is no reason why we should not be able to pass this piece of legislation. Q: This land ordinance is valid till April 5, 2015. Are you going to prorogue this parliament session, any decision? A: This is a decision which the cabinet will take. There was no decision taken today but there is a lot of time between now and April 5 and therefore this is a decision which the cabinet will take. Q: Between now and April 5, we could see something? A: I cannot presume anything. Snipped -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
