Thousands of landless people, Dalits, Adivasis, construction workers, slum dwellers, displaced families of mines and industrial projects gathered at the lower PMG here in demand of homestead and agriculture land for housing and livelihood to live a life with dignity.
Chairperson of Odisha Jami Adhikar Abhijan Manas Jena presided over a public meeting held on the occasion. Speakers from various political parties and mass organisations expressed their solidarity with the movement.
Social worker Bijay Mohanty, Santosh Das (CPM), Radhakanta Sethy (CPIMl), Kamakhyak Nayak (Dalit Adhikar Manch), Ananta (lokmukti Sangathan), Rakshyakar (Pragatishil Sramik Manch), Kanhu Mohanty (Ekata Parisad), Smitarani Pattnaik (Mahila Adhikar Manch), Kishan Pattnaik (Dalit Adhikar Sangathan) and Prasanta Mallick, Shyam Sundar Bhoi , Bijay Das, Sisir Tripathy, Bhadrasen Bhoina, Rabindra Deep, Mahendra Sethy, Bramarbar Jethy and Theophil Gamango all land rights activists from different districts, spoke in support of the demand.
They said it is shocking that the State Government is leasing out huge lands to private companies in the name of development but not showing concern about the basic needs of the landless poor.
There are thousands of acres of Bhoodan land, ceiling-surplus land, wasteland and forestland once demarcated for distribution among them but have not been distributed for cultivation. landless people still live amidst paddy fields, coconut stretches and on banks of irrigation canals and mines dumping. They have no homestead Patta land to construct houses as a large majority of them are placed on the so-called Government land or community land since generations which have not been recorded in their names because there has been no survey and settlement initiative carried out by the Revenue Department.
They pointed out that the various homestead land distribution programmes have not been implemented. Although the Union Ministry of Rural Development in 2009 ordered to purchase private land for distribution among landless in case of non-availability of Government land, the State Government has not implemented this till date.
Agricultural land and forests have been source of livelihoods for Adivasis and Dalits who are small and marginal farmers, sharecroppers and agricultural workers, but they are without record of rights over the land they have been cultivating since long, the speakers said.
A five-member delegation lead by Manas Jena met the Governor and submitted a 15-point charter of demands including homestead land to all landless in rural and urban areas and implementation of the Rural Development Ministry’s order to purchase private land for distribution to homestead-less families.