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Farmers' unions across party lines to protest land ordinance

Farmers' unions of the Left, Right and Centre, including RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), are planning to take to the streets against the Modi government's land acquisition ordinance.

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Farmers' unions of the Left, Right and Centre, including RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), are planning to take to the streets against the Modi government's land acquisition ordinance.

While the Left's All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) is reaching out to all other farmers' organisations, agricultural workers union and civil society groups to join for an agitational programme at all district headquarters on January 30, the BKS has already planned a protest during the budget session of Parliament.

The BKS, which had a couple of rounds of meetings with senior ministers, had conveyed its concerns about industrial corridors being in the exemption list and sought preparation of a "land bank" for any project.

"We suggested that a bank of barren and other similar land be made to put up industries. Why take fertile land from farmers for it?" asked BKS general secretary Prabhakar Kelkar.

He asked why the government was not insisting that industries take land on lease from the farmers. However, he said the government had taken on board some of its concerns about farmers' rehabilitation and the BKS welcomed the decisions amending Clause 105 to include all 13 provisions in favour of farmers to get the full Compensation and Rehabilitation Resettlement package and making it mandatory of one person in a farmer's family to get employment.

Though the BKS has not been critical of the government, the body set up in 1986 to take up farmers concerns, has opposed the decision to exempt industrial corridors from consent of farmers and from SIA, saying it would lead to land grabbing. The AIKS has also expressed similar apprehensions and said the move was to promote profiteering and real estate speculation by the corporates and land mafia and further diluted the Act.

The BKS has not taken a decision yet on joining the AIKS agitation against the ordianance. "We will see when we are approached by it," Kelkar said.

The BKS had earlier opposed the Centre's decision approving field trials of certain varieties of Genetically Modified-crops and sought stalling of the move.

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