The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has forwarded 5,000 postcards to the Prime Minister opposing the planned smart city project on tea garden land in Dehradun and in support of the demands for renovating the tea gardens and ownership rights for the people settled there. This was stated after a meeting of the party held here. In a related development the representatives of various leftist organisations have decided to organise a protest in Dehradun on January 19 under the banner of National Platform of Mass Organisations (NPMO).
Expressing their views at the CPI (M) meet, the party leaders stressed that the tea-gardens can be put to better use for livelihood and maintenance of the state of environment. They alleged that the Central and State governments are bent upon destroying the tea-gardens in the interests of real estate business. The CPI (M) district secretary Rajendra Purohit, Virendra Bhandari and Shiv Prasad Devli among others were also present in the meeting.
In a related development, office bearers of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Students Federation of India, Kisan Sabha, All India Democratic Women’s Association and others attended a meeting held here on Sunday. It was decided in this meeting that the National Platform of Mass Organisations will organise a protest at the Deen Dayal park in Dehradun on Tuesday. The forum will raise various issues including labour laws, tea-gardens, violence against women and education among other issues. CITU State general secretary Virendra Bhandari, Kisan Mahasabha general secretary Kamaruddin, CITU district secretary lekhraj and Gagan Garg from the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and others were among those who attended the meeting.