Farmers' wing of CPI(M) to hold Sangharsh rally next month

The farmers' wing of CPI(M) will hold a Sangharsh rally here next month during which it will raise some of its key demands including implementation of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act and withdrawal of foreign direct investment in agriculture sector.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), will voice the demands of implementing a package of loan waiver for poor peasants, reversing "anti-people" policies to stop farmers' suicide and offering works under MGNREGA at a rate not less than Rs 300 wage per day.

The AIKS will take out four jathas (marches), two from Tamil Nadu and one each from West Bengal and Jammu, early next month and the same will culminate into the rally at Ramlila Maidan on November 24.
 

"The jathas will mobilise peasantry against the neo-liberal policies responsible for the present acute agrarian crisis and expose the anti-farmer policies of the Modi government which have aggravated the crisis further," AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah said in a statement.

Among the AIKS' charter of demands include enacting a central legislation for agricultural workers to ensure minimum wage and social security, providing house sites free of cost to all landless agricultural workers, besides supplying inputs at subsidised rate and promoting agro-ecological practices.

"The government should ensure food security by enhancing agriculture production, procurement and distribution. It should ensure social security by providing minimum Rs 3,000 monthly pension for all the peasants and agriculture workers all over the country," he said.

"We want the government to implement the 2013 Land Acquisition Act and withdrawal of foreign direct investment in agriculture sector," Mollah said.

Besides the issues related to peasantry, the AIKS also pitched for repealing proposal of anti-worker amendments in labour law, and curbing atrocities on women, dalits, tribals and minorities.

"If the government is not willing to reverse its pro-corporate economic policies and save the peasantry from the acute crisis, then the AIKS along with other like-minded organisations will unleash country-wide militant struggles till all the demands are met with," Mollah said.