The Garib Kranti Abhiyan will observe land Consolidation Day (Chakbbandi Divas) on March 8 at the Municipal Corporation office in Dehradun. The land Consolidation Day is being observed by the Garib Kranti Abhiyan for the past three years with focus on raising awareness on the import of land consolidation among the common people.
According to the activists of the outfit spearheading campaign on the issue, the matter holds immense importance for the people residing in the hill districts of Uttarakhand. If the State goes the way of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh in terms of land consolidation this State would also have a giant leap in the fields of agriculture and horticulture.
Garib Kranti Abhiyan secretary, lalit Mohan stressed that efforts are being made to motivate the people of the villages of the hill districts of the Uttarakhand to go for land consolidation. “We have been launching campaign on this issue for the past three years to take it right among the villagers from the hilly region of the State.
The observance of land Consolidation Day is a part of the ongoing campaign. The programme slated in Dehradun on 8 March will be presided over by the farmer from Purola (Uttarkashi) Yudhveer Singh Rawat who had achieved exemplary success in the agricultural production through Chakbandi model. The function will also focus on the persons who are working in this field with their own resources”.
The committee has been constituted by way of preparation for the observance of the day. The members include Rajnikant Kukreti, Akhilesh Budakoti, Digvijay Singh Chauhan, Vidhi Sharma, Jaiveer Chauhan and Pradeep Kukreti. last year, the day was observed at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, Besides, a two-day seminar was organised in district headquarters Pauri.
Mention worthy, there is vast difference in the mode of agricultural production involving the mountainous and plain regions of the State. While food grains come up in abundance in the plains its yield is low in the mountainous region, given its lands remaining scattered.
This fact accounts for the peasants from the remote villages in the hills shunning agriculture and branching out into other avenues of livelihood and even migrating to cities and towns in quest of jobs. This is because the yields and the returns they derive from agriculture are meager and it is proving difficult for them even to provide themselves and their families two square meals a day.
land consolidation and improved irrigation are two of the major factors required to increase the yield of food grains in the mountainous areas, the specialists on agriculture say.
In 2004, the then Congress-led State Government had announced the formation of the Uttarakhand Bhumi Sudhar Parishad. However, the council remained hamstrung with things being stuck among the heaps of official files. later, the former BJP Chief Minister Maj. General (Rtd) BC Khanduri had constituted a committee on 9 February 2009 for framing fine-prints of land consolidation in the mountainous areas. He was inspired by the land consolidation, transforming agriculture in Haridwar, Uttarkashi and Udhamsinghnagar.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat pitches in strongly, vowing to take things far as far as land consolidation is concerned. However, the State Agriculture Ministry is yet to take positive initiatives on the crucial matter-the indifference that keeps things vegetating as far as the plight of the peasants in the mountainous areas are concerned.