Members of the Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Mahasabha burnt the State Government in effigy at Bindukhatta on Friday to protest against allotment of 350 nali land to a corporate group in Almora and alleged persecution of local villagers opposing the Government decision.
Addressing the gathering held after burning of the effigy, Communist Party of India (Marxist leninist) area secretary lalit Matiyali said that during the term of the BJP-led State Government under Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri as the chief minister, when 350 nali unmeasured barren land was ascertained at Dwarso the BJP had kept the rights of this land with the government. He said, “At that time the CPI (Ml) had demanded that the authority for management and distribution of such unmeasured barren lands should be accorded to the Gram Panchayats otherwise such lands would be lost to the land mafia and corporate enterprises. Our fear turned out to be well founded considering that chief minister Harish Rawat recently unveiled the foundation for an international educational institution by a corporate group here. The successive State Governments led by the BJP and Congress have conspired to sell the State’s lands to corporate houses at throwaway prices. It is unfortunate that the chief minister visited the programme organised on the occasion despite the fact that the locals had been strongly opposing the decision,” he said, while exhorting all democratic powers to unite in opposition to the “anti-people” policies of the State Government.
Speaking at the protest, the Kisan Mahasabha district committee member Gopal Singh alleged that the Congress-led government in Uttarakhand is bent upon functioning in a dictatorial manner. He said, “In order to meet the interests of the land mafia and corporate houses, the State Government is bent upon disposing off the government lands whereas such lands could have been given to the many disaster affected people of Uttarakhand. That the government has stooped down to autocracy is evident from the arrest of locals protesting against the State Government’s decision. The police lathi charge on protesters and their arrests during their protest at the inauguration of Bindukhatta municipality were also a result of such autocracy,” he said.