Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) along with other farmers’ organizations have been protesting continuously for the last seven days against the acquisition of land of poor laborers in the name of expanding the Azamgarh Manduri airstrip.
On Wednesday, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha has called upon all the farmers’ organizations of eastern UP to come to Azamgarh on October 22.
SKM members who were present at the protest site alleged that “Modi government is continuously selling government and public institutions to the capitalists in the name of privatization, due to which the public has lost confidence in this government.”
They also said that till yesterday the UP govt. was bulldozing Muslims, now they are bulldozing the poor. In many places, government administration is sending eviction notices to the poor settled on barren and fallow land.
According to the press release issued by the SKM, other farmers’ organizations involved in the sit-in protest for the last one week say that the issue of land acquisition is not only in Azamgarh but from Silger and Hasdeo forests in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to Naugarh, Ballia, Azamgarh, Kaimur and Chandauli in Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Allegations of land acquisition from the Farmer’s organisations
Farmers’ organizations allege that “New feudal lords, big landowners are being created in the name of airstrip, mandi, highway, expressway and sanctuary. They say that during the tenure of Modi government, farmers and laborers had already been made the cheapest and helpless laborers and now preparations strip them of their honor and self-respect and make them bonded labourers.
SKM added that to struggle against these issues, rural committees will be formed in every village and it will be led by women.
The women present at the dharna site allege that on October 12-13, two women (Sunita and Sumitra) became the victims of harassment by the police and the administration for opposing the acquisition.
Sunita, Sumitra, Dukhharan Ram, Rajiv Yadav, Rahul Vidyarthi, Rajesh Azad, Ramanyan, Vinod Yadav, Awadhesh Yadav, Pramod, Ashish Upadhyay, Suresh, Munna Lal, Radhey Shyam etc. were among the speakers who made the villagers aware of the dharna. . The program was presided over by Dukhharan Ram and conducted by Shashikant Upadhyay.
