 "Kejriwal meets Sikh farmers of Kutch, slams Modi govt")
"Kejriwal has demanded justice for the Punjab farmers settled in Kutch since independence. He had a very heartfelt talk with the Sikh farmers in Abdasa. They talked at length about their worries of losing the land which they have been harvesting since generations," said AAP leader and BJP rebel Kanu Kalsariya, accompanying Kejriwal, who is on four-day visit to Gujarat to ascertain the tall claims of development being made by state chief minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
"The farmers have won the case in the Gujarat High Court, but the state government has gone into appeal in the Supreme Court. Though there is no stay on the High Court order, the government is not implementing it under the pretext of the matter being subjudice," Kalsariya added.
After meeting with Sikh farmers in Abdasa block of Kutch, Kejriwal said that Gujarat government was not willing to given them their land. "The state government has hired senior lawyers in the Apex Court so that the Sikh farmers of Gujarat do not get their land," Kejriwal told reporters. He also assured the farmers that he would raise their issues at the highest level. The farmers also saw hope in Kejriwal as their pleas to the state government have gone unheard. "After being turned down by the state government we have some hope from Kejriwal," said on of the farmers who had met Kejriwal.
After the 1965 India-Pakistan war, at the behest of the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, many farmers from Punjab and from Rajasthan were settled in Kutch district. The decision helped to increase farm production. About three years ago, the Kutch collector invoked the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act of 1948 and froze the accounts of an unspecified number of non-Gujarati farmers. The farmers approached the Gujarat High Court, which ruled against the collector's action. But the state government decided to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court. The case is pending in the Apex Court.
While his visit to government hospital in Bhuj BJP workers showed him black flags and protested his visit to Gujarat. Kejriwal left the hospital without inspecting it.
Kejriwal, who began his visit in Gujarat on Wednesday had faced severe opposition on the first day itself with attack by BJP workers in Bhachau who broke glass of his car. Kejriwal was also briefly detained by the state police in Radhanpur town of Patan district for alleged violation of model code of conduct.