Shimla: Numerous farmers of Himachal Kisan Sabha held a protest outside various Forest Departments around the State, against the new TD policy and the anti encroachment drive carried out by the Himachal Pradesh Government.
Dr. KuldeepSingh Tanwar in a public meeting castigated at the state government for forming an anti people policy that goes against the traditional rights enjoyed by the kisans since ages and said, “The TD rights along with other rights were imparted by the British and were recorded. The need was to make this TD rational and not altogether out of bounds from the common man which will not serve the purpose of the people and instead will invite large scale pilferage of the converted timber.â€
The Himachal Kisan Sabha has also asked the government to immediately halt the eviction drive which goes against the promise made to the people by the BJP government. Presently according to the census data , there are more than 9 lakh households(9,13,914) and the number of those who practice agriculture has almost doubled since 1981(from 10.01 lakhs to 19.54 lakhs) i.e. 100% increase, which means ;though the population has increased by 50%, but pressure on agriculture has gone manifold. In addition to that after the nationalization of Forests, there has been no new distribution of land (Nau taur etc), which eventually comes from forest as 66.6% of the land is with forest department. In such a precarious situation the peasant has also encroached upon forest land and which is also certified by the Satellite images that state agriculture is practiced in nearly 18% of the land whereas the revenue department puts it to just 12% .
On this background they’ve asked the government to regularize the land uptill 25 bighas.
