Land Acquisition Decried

Land acquisition decried

Statesman News Service

BHUBANESWAR, Sept. 26: Timing their protests with plethora of MoUs signed today, the Jibika Banchao Andolan activists decried the mindless vesting of thousands of acres of valuable land to MNCs and adding to the already existing 5 lakh landless in the state by uprooting people.

Led by president of the Andolan Mr Kedar Ray, several social activists, including Mr Rabi Behera, Mr Pratap Sahu, Mr Alok Mohanty, Mr Direndra and Mr Haladhar Sethy, delivered fiery speeches condemning the government's MoU madness. It is blindly signing one MoU after another throwing open its natural resources to the mercy of MNC's without any assessment of land requirement or the implications of all these industries.

The health, education and other social sectors are ignored, lakh of people do not get a small piece of homestead land and yet the government is hell bent to uproot and displace people, they alleged. The one who controls land and water resources will rule the world and these MNCs are out to grab it, they said. They demanded consent of villages through gram sabha before signing of MoU with any company and constitution of an independent expert committee to assess the land requirement of each industry.

Each and every displaced family should have a job in the project, land for land and means of livelihood, homestead land for all landless people within three months, were amongst the other demands voiced by the organisation.