A large number of people and leaders of various political organisations under the banner of the Odisha Dalit Adhikar Manch (ODAM) staged a demonstration here demanding various measures for social and economic development of landless agriculture workers, sharecroppers and SC and ST people.
later, a team of the Manch submitted an eight-point charger of demands to Governor Dr SC Jamir.
The protest meeting held on Tuesday under chairmanship of ODAM president Manas Jena was participated by MlA George Tirkey and FreeThought Party general secretary B Ram Chandra CST Voltaire, CPI (Ml)’s Sabyasachi, CPI’s Narayan Reddy, CPM’s Santosh Das, Sivaram, State Secretary, CPIMl (Red Star) State Secretary Sivaram, columnist lalit Mishra, environmentalist Prafulla Samantara and social activists laxmipriya Behera and Akshaya Kumar Mallick, among others.
They demanded that a legislation named ‘Odisha land Rights Act’ be enacted to ensure homestead land and five acres of agriculture land to all landless families at the earliest.
“The agricultural labourers and sharecropper families, whose depend on agriculture for livelihood, must have five acres of agricultural land. It will boost agriculture production and rural self-employment and counter increasing distressed migration in the State,” the memorandum read.
Similarly, they demanded that Dalit communities be ensured use of common property resources (CPR) such as village cremation ground, temple land, water sources, ponds, village forest, playground and other commons so that social discrimination can be eradicated.
The other demands include proper implementation of the Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) and Scheduled Tribes Sub Plan (STSP) through special schemes as being done in Telengana, English medium education in all schools, provision of basic amenities such as safe drinking water, electricity, linking road and sanitation in the SC and ST hamlets, execution of laws against untouchability, social stigmas and blind beliefs and training to all Government employees on constitutional rights and laws and pogrammes for the protection and development of SCs and STs and other marginalised poor in rural areas.
The Manch urged the Governor to look into the demands urgently and make necessary efforts for their fulfillment.