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1-10-2019 to 15-10-2019 ASIA
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Land rights activists demand for
comprehensive Land Reforms
Asia Land Forum 2019 started here
in Udaipur with nearly a thousand
Dalits, Adivasis, Pastoralists and other
landless communities and those
depended on commons came on a platform
to fight for their rights. Activists
and land rights defenders, policy makers,
members of international organisations
from 13 Asian countries as
well as from Europe are here to deliberate
on various issues related to
agrarian and land reforms.
Young member of
Parliament from Kerala, Ms Ramya
passionately sang a song while Ekta
Parishad founder P V Rajagopal spoke
of threat to livelihood of thousands of
people and efforts to ensure that the
lonely planet remain safe. He talked
about his ten thousand kilometer long
march from Delhi to Geneva for Peace
and justice.
International Land
Coalition director Micheal Taylor
expressed solidarity with the struggling
people particularly Dalits,
Adivasis, Pastoralists who are the protector
of our environment and forest.
He also questioned the developmental
model which threaten to displace millions
of people without seeking their
opinion and consent. He asked that all
project need to implement Free Prior
Informed Consent concept.
MARAG founder Lal ji
Bhai Desai spoke about the struggle
against SIR in Gujarat and said that
whether it is Dalits, Adivasis,
Maldharis, all love nature and consider
Earth their mother. They can not
compromise with the dignity of their
mother. He called for unity among all.
Activists raised the
issues of Forest Rights Acts and
attempt to dilute it. In the name of
Environment people are being displaced
and rather than empowering
Adivasis and other forest dwellers, the
government actually is empowering
corporations and Forest Department.
People have been made criminals on
their own land.
Don Marquese from
Philippines spoke about failed land
reformed in his country while Pallav
Chakma from Chakma Hill Track,
Bangladesh spoke
about growing
alienation of adivasis
and failure of
the Bangladesh government to sign
the Indigenous People’s declaration of
2007.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
said that there was lack of political
will in implementation of land reform
laws because the upper caste political
leadership never wanted to change the
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
social and human rights activist
British PM to set
out details of
final Brexit offer
power equations in villages. He said
that Jai Jagat will not succeed unless
India’s Dalits, Adivasis face caste and
community discriminations and villages
though romanticised by Gandhi,
still remain den of feudalism, superstition
and nepotism. Indian
villages even today are the
biggest and best example
of how caste system operate
as Dr Baba Saheb
Ambedkar had said long
back. Democracy will never succeed
unless there is social democracy and it
will never happen unless there is equal
redistribution of land to people or
nationalisation of it. Many may call it
a dream but we will have to fight.
We brought Zamindari abolition act
but it failed. Land Ceiling Act has not
been implemented. My point is clear,
Land has two important issues today
related to Dalits and Adivasis. One, for
the Dalits who were denied historically,
the right to own land, so that
need land legally by the government.
The Adivasis had land
in their forest and they nurtured
it but today, they have been
hounded out from their land
and are being declared as
encroachers. The Wild Life
fundamentalists and corporate
environmentalists have created
a dirt through their money power
which make Adivasis and other Forest
Dwellers criminal in their own land. It
is therefore important to protect
Adivasi land as they are the protector
of nature and not the forest department
or World Wide Funds. My appeal was
that our Land Ceiling Laws must be
amended to stop their misuse and circumvention.
All the corporate farming,
gaushalas, religious trusts, educational
and other charitable institutions must
be put under the land ceiling limit. You
can not give them unlimited power
related to land. The land declared ceiling
surplus must be distributed and
people should be given possession and
not merely entitlement which are show
pieces as in most of the places in UP
and Bihar, people have land papers but
no access to their land.
Forest Rights act must be strictly
implemented and Adivasis must be
given a role in managing the forest.
The session was chair by Amitabh
Behar, country head of Oxfam India,
who also spoke about the dangers of
corporate take over. He emphasised
that the land laws need to be strictly
implemented as well as some of them
need to be amended. Forest Rights act
too must be strictly implemented and
rights of the forest dwellers must be
protected. He expressed concern over
the corporate take over of India’s land
and forest.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social
and human rights activist. He blogs
at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com
twitter @freetohumanity
Email: vbrawat@gmail.com
London : British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson will set out details of his "final" negotiating
offer to the European Union (EU) on
Wednesday in pursuit of a "fair and reasonable"
Brexit compromise.
Johnson will address the Tory conference
before submitting new proposals, intended to
form the legal text of a new
Brexit deal, to Brussels, the
BBC reported.
Only by leaving the EU
on October 31 can the UK
"move on", he will argue.
Tory Chairman James
Cleverly said the UK had
been "flexible and pragmatic",
and now the EU must
be the same.
On the eve of his speech,
Johnson told a conference
fringe meeting in
Manchester, hosted by the
DUP, that he hoped to reach a deal with the
EU over the course of "the next few days".
Later, he will claim the public will no longer
be "taken for fools" by those who want to
delay or block the process.
The government has insisted it will not
negotiate a further delay beyond the
Halloween deadline, saying this would be
unnecessary and costly for the UK.
However, under the terms of a law passed
by Parliament last month, Johnson faces having
to request another extension unless MPs
back the terms of withdrawal by October 19 -
two days after a summit of European leaders.
On Tuesday, the British PM dismissed
leaked reports that customs posts could be set
up on either side of the border between
Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland.
He said suggestions the
UK wanted "clearance zones"
for goods as part of a package
of alternative arrangements to
replace the Irish backstop
were wide of the mark.
While he conceded some
customs checks would be
needed as the UK leaves the
EU's customs union and single
market, he said technology
could keep them to an
"absolute minimum".
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme,
Cleverly appeared to put the ball in
the EU's court. "We have been in negotiating
for some while," he said. "The UK has been
flexible, but a negotiation means both parties
need to be flexible. "What we need to see now
is the EU be flexible - and if they can be pragmatic
and flexible, we can leave with a deal on
October 31. But we are going to leave on
October 31 whatever."