In view of the controversy raging in Kerala over provision of land for industry and agriculture, I presume the recent policy changes made by China will be of interest to readers.
Those interested may see a critique of the Chinese Communist Party’s reform proposal, titled “China’s land reform will deepen the gulf between rich and poor” by John Chan, at the World Socialist Web Site.
Showing posts with label LAND REFORM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LAND REFORM. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Are you with the land mafia or with the landless?
Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary says talk of a second land reform is extremist gibberish. The Chief Minister says opportunists are afraid of extremists. The problem before Kerala is not whether to go with the extremists or the opportunists, but whether to stand with the landless who are getting increasingly marginalized or with the land mafia, which is steadily tightening its hold. Those with a sense of history can see the new phase as a repetition of the early days of the medieval era when monarchy, landlordism and caste supremacists established themselves. The Dalits and the Adivasis, who suffered most as a result of that change, are the main victims of the emerging social order too. Those who grabbed lands for agriculture became lords in the feudal era. Those who grabbed lands for industry become lords today. The old rulers and warlords have gone. Political sharpshooters are the new rulers.
The land reform, which was initiated by the communist regime 50 years ago and completed later by parties of the left and the right, totally ignored the landless farm labourers, who were Dalits. It treated the Adivasis even more cruelly. The law turned them into landlords and recognized those who cultivated the lands in their possession as tenants who were entitled to get ownership.
In 1957, according to official records, 35% of the farm land in the state was under paddy. By 1997 it had shrunk to 13% and by 2006 to 9%. The ruled that prohibited conversion of farm land and the destruction of other crops on converted land could not save paddy. Planning Board documents show that on an average 22,000 hectares of paddy land was lost annually during the Eighth Five-Year Plan, 13,000 hectares during the Ninth Plan and 11,657 hectares during the Tenth Plan. At this rate, the remaining 275,000 hectares will disappear during the next five Plan periods. The authorities who are wracking their brains to devise new laws to prevent this must find out why people are turning away from paddy. If a sincere effort is made in this direction, they will realise that those who got farm land as a result of land reform were not interested in continuing as farmers. They sold the land to educate their children and equip them to join the middle class. Those who stayed put in farming switched to profitable commercial crops.
In 1966-67, before land reform, 60% of all land holders possessed less than 0.40 hectare each, 22% between 0.40 and one hectare each and 10% between one and two hectares each. In 1990-91, after land reform, 72% had less than 0.50 hectare each. Five years later, those with holdings below 0.50 hectare rose to 75%. That a large majority of Dalits are still landless shows that the claim that land reform changed the society is hollow. Among Dalit land holders 97.5% and among Adivasi land holders 97.8% own less than 0.50 hectare each.
Legislature committees have reported that several of the plantations, which were exempted from land ceilings, are in possession of land in excess of their entitlement. Experts are of the view that if the land illegally held by them is repossessed there will be enough to meet the needs of landless farm workers. No government has shown the will to act with determination in this regard. Just as delay in enforcing land reform helped the landlords to transfer excess land and escape the provisions of the ceilings law, by the time the government wakes up and gets ready to act the plantation owners may have sold all their land.
Official statistics about land are not entirely reliable. This will be clear from a scrutiny of records relating to extent of forest. According to an official document of 1957-58, forests covered an area of 10,18,000 hectares. Forty years later, in 1997-98, official records gave the extent of forest as 10,82,00 hectares. Five years later, in 2005-06, forest area remained the same, according to Planning Board papers. That is to say, during the half- century, when extensive denudation is believed to have taken place, there was actually a marginal increase in the area under forest! As the comedy character says, ‘how clever!’ In the matter of revenue lands, too, government figures are not reliable. Resurvey which began decades ago is continuing without the end in sight. According to the report of a recent unofficial study, there is a trend towards concentration of land in a few hands. The study was conducted not by extremists but by the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad, which has undertaken some missions for the Left. The Parishad study revealed that a large section of the very poor, comprising Dalits, Adivasis and fisher folk, are landless and the very rich section, accounting for 8.8% of the population, has amassed a lot of land.
The concept of second land reform provides an opportunity to correct past mistakes. The government and the party that leads it must realize that it will be a folly to miss this opportunity. The landless asking for farm land is not extremism. Also, it is not opportunism to say that it is necessary to find land for industries. If leaders see extremism and opportunism in them, it must be because they are seeing things which we are not able to see. When the partyu secretary says seizing the land of small holders and giving it to the landless will create anarchy, he is spreading misunderstanding. The landless have not raised such a demand. Although he says there is no difference of opinion in the party on the land issue, the question whether it is with the land mafia or with the landless is valid.
The administration has the duty to make available land to meet the needs of agriculture and industry. Kerala’s high population density and the current pace of rapid urbanization increase its responsibility. Developments in the State are similar to what happened in post-War Japan. We can, therefore, learn some lessons from that country’s experience. At one stage Japan had relied upon other countries for 75% of its food needs. As its economy boomed, farmers experienced two problems. They realized that their farming methods were outdated. As returns from paddy cultivation were low, farmers started moving away from it. At that stage, the government stepped in and guaranteed high price for paddy. When paddy cultivation became remunerative, farmers who were growing other produce switched to paddy. Since produictivity increased, production rose in spite of a fall in the number of farmers. Now food deficit is down to 33%.
Kerala can follow the Japanese example of land use. Taking into account the rapid urbanization, the Japanese authorities divided the land into four zones: one where urbanization is promoted, another where agriculture was promoted, a third where both agriculture and urbanization were promoted and parkland. If land use is regulated in this manner, it will be possible to ensure that there is land for both industry and agriculture. It will also help avoid a siyuation where mafia gangs loaded with black money run around grabbing land. There is room to doubt the intentions of rulers who are reluctant to frame a scientific land use policy.
Based on column ‘Nerkkazhcha’ appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated August 21, 2008
The land reform, which was initiated by the communist regime 50 years ago and completed later by parties of the left and the right, totally ignored the landless farm labourers, who were Dalits. It treated the Adivasis even more cruelly. The law turned them into landlords and recognized those who cultivated the lands in their possession as tenants who were entitled to get ownership.
In 1957, according to official records, 35% of the farm land in the state was under paddy. By 1997 it had shrunk to 13% and by 2006 to 9%. The ruled that prohibited conversion of farm land and the destruction of other crops on converted land could not save paddy. Planning Board documents show that on an average 22,000 hectares of paddy land was lost annually during the Eighth Five-Year Plan, 13,000 hectares during the Ninth Plan and 11,657 hectares during the Tenth Plan. At this rate, the remaining 275,000 hectares will disappear during the next five Plan periods. The authorities who are wracking their brains to devise new laws to prevent this must find out why people are turning away from paddy. If a sincere effort is made in this direction, they will realise that those who got farm land as a result of land reform were not interested in continuing as farmers. They sold the land to educate their children and equip them to join the middle class. Those who stayed put in farming switched to profitable commercial crops.
In 1966-67, before land reform, 60% of all land holders possessed less than 0.40 hectare each, 22% between 0.40 and one hectare each and 10% between one and two hectares each. In 1990-91, after land reform, 72% had less than 0.50 hectare each. Five years later, those with holdings below 0.50 hectare rose to 75%. That a large majority of Dalits are still landless shows that the claim that land reform changed the society is hollow. Among Dalit land holders 97.5% and among Adivasi land holders 97.8% own less than 0.50 hectare each.
Legislature committees have reported that several of the plantations, which were exempted from land ceilings, are in possession of land in excess of their entitlement. Experts are of the view that if the land illegally held by them is repossessed there will be enough to meet the needs of landless farm workers. No government has shown the will to act with determination in this regard. Just as delay in enforcing land reform helped the landlords to transfer excess land and escape the provisions of the ceilings law, by the time the government wakes up and gets ready to act the plantation owners may have sold all their land.
Official statistics about land are not entirely reliable. This will be clear from a scrutiny of records relating to extent of forest. According to an official document of 1957-58, forests covered an area of 10,18,000 hectares. Forty years later, in 1997-98, official records gave the extent of forest as 10,82,00 hectares. Five years later, in 2005-06, forest area remained the same, according to Planning Board papers. That is to say, during the half- century, when extensive denudation is believed to have taken place, there was actually a marginal increase in the area under forest! As the comedy character says, ‘how clever!’ In the matter of revenue lands, too, government figures are not reliable. Resurvey which began decades ago is continuing without the end in sight. According to the report of a recent unofficial study, there is a trend towards concentration of land in a few hands. The study was conducted not by extremists but by the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad, which has undertaken some missions for the Left. The Parishad study revealed that a large section of the very poor, comprising Dalits, Adivasis and fisher folk, are landless and the very rich section, accounting for 8.8% of the population, has amassed a lot of land.
The concept of second land reform provides an opportunity to correct past mistakes. The government and the party that leads it must realize that it will be a folly to miss this opportunity. The landless asking for farm land is not extremism. Also, it is not opportunism to say that it is necessary to find land for industries. If leaders see extremism and opportunism in them, it must be because they are seeing things which we are not able to see. When the partyu secretary says seizing the land of small holders and giving it to the landless will create anarchy, he is spreading misunderstanding. The landless have not raised such a demand. Although he says there is no difference of opinion in the party on the land issue, the question whether it is with the land mafia or with the landless is valid.
The administration has the duty to make available land to meet the needs of agriculture and industry. Kerala’s high population density and the current pace of rapid urbanization increase its responsibility. Developments in the State are similar to what happened in post-War Japan. We can, therefore, learn some lessons from that country’s experience. At one stage Japan had relied upon other countries for 75% of its food needs. As its economy boomed, farmers experienced two problems. They realized that their farming methods were outdated. As returns from paddy cultivation were low, farmers started moving away from it. At that stage, the government stepped in and guaranteed high price for paddy. When paddy cultivation became remunerative, farmers who were growing other produce switched to paddy. Since produictivity increased, production rose in spite of a fall in the number of farmers. Now food deficit is down to 33%.
Kerala can follow the Japanese example of land use. Taking into account the rapid urbanization, the Japanese authorities divided the land into four zones: one where urbanization is promoted, another where agriculture was promoted, a third where both agriculture and urbanization were promoted and parkland. If land use is regulated in this manner, it will be possible to ensure that there is land for both industry and agriculture. It will also help avoid a siyuation where mafia gangs loaded with black money run around grabbing land. There is room to doubt the intentions of rulers who are reluctant to frame a scientific land use policy.
Based on column ‘Nerkkazhcha’ appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated August 21, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Food crisis offers Kerala opportunity to make a new beginning
Is the fracas among the political parties belonging to the ruling and opposition fronts over the responsibility for the rise in rice prices a continuation of their usual shadow fighting The two sides always try to make it appear as though they were responsible for all the good things that have happened here and that the other side was responsible for all the bad things. Since the Congress ranks are by birth anti-Communist and the Communist ranks are by birth anti-Congress, the crowds keep cheering their respective sides and enjoy the game.
The war of words between the fronts is rather like a quarrel among frogs in the well. The rise in rice prices did not happen suddenly. The prices of foodgrains were rising continuously during the last few years. World Bank vice-president Praful Patel, who is in charge of this region, recently said that grain prices recorded an increase of 70% in the last seven years
The Food and Agriculture Organization kept recording the increase in price year after year. Last year's report said that grain prices rose steeply in 2006 and that the trend was continuing. FAO revealed that in March this year prices reached the highest level in three decades. All this information did not reach the frogs in the well.
Kerala gets the good effects of the globalized system as well as its ill-effects in abundant measure. We must, therefore, know what is happening in the world. We don't produce our requirements of foodgrains. We must, therefore, know what is happening in the rice-growing countries. In last year's Economic Review, the Planning Board had referred to the decline in the area under rice as well as production in the other southern States and described it as a matter of concern. It did not refer to developments in the world market probably because India is self-sufficient in foodgrains and it is the Centre's responsibility to meet the State's needs.
Experts cite three major reasons for the worldwide rise in grain prices. One is the rise in energy prices. Many countries, including the United States, are giving priority to crops needed for manufacture of ethanol which is being used as a substitute for oil. As a result, food production has declined. Climate change and natural disasters constitute another cause of price rise. Over and above these comes
hoarding by traders hoping to make huge profits. This is probably the only area where the State government can do something. However, it may not do anything more than holding out threats of action. After all, barking dogs don't bite.
The Government of India has banned the export all varieties of rice other than basmati to prevent the world food crisis making its impact on the domestic market. This has adversely affected overseas Indians. Rice has reportedly disappeared from US shops patronized by Indians.
India's problem is not food scarcity but high prices. The worst sufferers are the poor. Kerala experiences both scarcity and rising prices. The worst sufferers here are those who do not get the benefit of the foreign remittances flowing around. The majority of the Dalits and the Adivasis are among them.
FAO expects the present food crisis to persist for years. It has put forward some proposals to deal with the situation in cooperation with national governments and international agencies. It asks that steps be taken to increase food production and make grains accessible to the weaker sections. This week UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called a meeting of representatives of 27 agencies of the world body at Berne, capital of Switzerland, to discuss an action plan to meet the situation. It is at this time that the ruling and opposition fronts here are trying to amuse us raising controversies.
Our rulers' tradition is one of destroying agriculture. They did it through revolutionary land reforms. Shortly before the first Communist government fell, the Governor, addressing the State Assembly, said, "Unless food production is increased two or three fold Kerala's food crisis cannot be solved permanently. I am glad that, realizing this, my government has taken steps to augment food production. Some success has already been registered in that direction." We now know that his
expectations did not materialize. Now the area under food crops and production are both shrinking continuously. It was the revolutionary thought that transferred land from the landlord to the tenant, who was standing on the border, instead of the farm labourer, who was working in the paddy-field. Even before he got the land he had decided to give his children a modern education so that they can join the
ranks of the emerging middle class. In his hands, land became an asset that can help realize his middle class hopes. As he realized his ambition, the State's food security, which was already in peril, was lost completely.
The lesson we have to learn from the present crisis is that we have to do certain things to ensure food security. If we can think constructively, we can turn this crisis into a new opportunity. All cultivable land must be brought under the plough. The government must draw up a plan for this purpose urgently. The task of implementing the plan must be entrusted with the sections of people who have not lost interest in farming yet. That way the government can do justice, even if belatedly, to the Dalits and Adivasis who were denied justice at the time of land reform. As far as possible they must be encouraged to do farming on cooperative basis. The government must ensure that the financial institutions give them the help they need. It must acquire at pre-determined prices all the grains they produce under the plan and distribute them to the weaker sections through the public distribution system.
Based on column "Nerkkazhcha" appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated May 1, 2008
The war of words between the fronts is rather like a quarrel among frogs in the well. The rise in rice prices did not happen suddenly. The prices of foodgrains were rising continuously during the last few years. World Bank vice-president Praful Patel, who is in charge of this region, recently said that grain prices recorded an increase of 70% in the last seven years
The Food and Agriculture Organization kept recording the increase in price year after year. Last year's report said that grain prices rose steeply in 2006 and that the trend was continuing. FAO revealed that in March this year prices reached the highest level in three decades. All this information did not reach the frogs in the well.
Kerala gets the good effects of the globalized system as well as its ill-effects in abundant measure. We must, therefore, know what is happening in the world. We don't produce our requirements of foodgrains. We must, therefore, know what is happening in the rice-growing countries. In last year's Economic Review, the Planning Board had referred to the decline in the area under rice as well as production in the other southern States and described it as a matter of concern. It did not refer to developments in the world market probably because India is self-sufficient in foodgrains and it is the Centre's responsibility to meet the State's needs.
Experts cite three major reasons for the worldwide rise in grain prices. One is the rise in energy prices. Many countries, including the United States, are giving priority to crops needed for manufacture of ethanol which is being used as a substitute for oil. As a result, food production has declined. Climate change and natural disasters constitute another cause of price rise. Over and above these comes
hoarding by traders hoping to make huge profits. This is probably the only area where the State government can do something. However, it may not do anything more than holding out threats of action. After all, barking dogs don't bite.
The Government of India has banned the export all varieties of rice other than basmati to prevent the world food crisis making its impact on the domestic market. This has adversely affected overseas Indians. Rice has reportedly disappeared from US shops patronized by Indians.
India's problem is not food scarcity but high prices. The worst sufferers are the poor. Kerala experiences both scarcity and rising prices. The worst sufferers here are those who do not get the benefit of the foreign remittances flowing around. The majority of the Dalits and the Adivasis are among them.
FAO expects the present food crisis to persist for years. It has put forward some proposals to deal with the situation in cooperation with national governments and international agencies. It asks that steps be taken to increase food production and make grains accessible to the weaker sections. This week UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called a meeting of representatives of 27 agencies of the world body at Berne, capital of Switzerland, to discuss an action plan to meet the situation. It is at this time that the ruling and opposition fronts here are trying to amuse us raising controversies.
Our rulers' tradition is one of destroying agriculture. They did it through revolutionary land reforms. Shortly before the first Communist government fell, the Governor, addressing the State Assembly, said, "Unless food production is increased two or three fold Kerala's food crisis cannot be solved permanently. I am glad that, realizing this, my government has taken steps to augment food production. Some success has already been registered in that direction." We now know that his
expectations did not materialize. Now the area under food crops and production are both shrinking continuously. It was the revolutionary thought that transferred land from the landlord to the tenant, who was standing on the border, instead of the farm labourer, who was working in the paddy-field. Even before he got the land he had decided to give his children a modern education so that they can join the
ranks of the emerging middle class. In his hands, land became an asset that can help realize his middle class hopes. As he realized his ambition, the State's food security, which was already in peril, was lost completely.
The lesson we have to learn from the present crisis is that we have to do certain things to ensure food security. If we can think constructively, we can turn this crisis into a new opportunity. All cultivable land must be brought under the plough. The government must draw up a plan for this purpose urgently. The task of implementing the plan must be entrusted with the sections of people who have not lost interest in farming yet. That way the government can do justice, even if belatedly, to the Dalits and Adivasis who were denied justice at the time of land reform. As far as possible they must be encouraged to do farming on cooperative basis. The government must ensure that the financial institutions give them the help they need. It must acquire at pre-determined prices all the grains they produce under the plan and distribute them to the weaker sections through the public distribution system.
Based on column "Nerkkazhcha" appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated May 1, 2008
Monday, November 19, 2007
Agitation by landless poor gathering momentum
KERALA'S landless are on the warpath. Small, scattered movements demanding land are going on in various parts of the State for some time. The mainstream political parties and the media are ignoring them. Yet they appear to be gaining momentum and to hold the potential to develop into a major challenge to the administration.
About 25,000 people have been squatting on a rubber plantation at Chengara in Pathanamthitta district since early August demanding that the government make good the promise of land made to them a year ago. So far the authorities have turned a blind eye to the agitation.
In Kuttanad, 250 landless families are up in arms against a co-operative society, which allegedly turned over to a tourist enterprise the land that the government had allotted to them.
At Nainankonam in Thiruvanathapuram district, villagers are getting restive again as their demands, which the government had conceded, are yet to be implemented fully. They had won the demands after a prolonged agitation.
Most of the landless people in the State are Dalits and Adivasis. This may be one reason why the political establishment and the media tend to ignore their agitations.
Dalits and Adivasis, who form only 11 per cent of the population, are a small segment of the social spectrum. They do not have sufficient numerical or economic strength to command the attention of the political parties.
The Adivasi leader, CK Janu, was able to draw attention to the plight of her people by staging a long agitation in the State capital in 2001. At that time the government agreed to give land to every landless Adivasi family.
When it failed to fulfil the promise, she and her followers occupied an abandoned plantation at Muthanga in 2003. They were ousted in a bloody police action. Subsequently the United Democratic Front (UDF) government distributed land to some Adivasi families. Under Left Democratic Front (LDF) rule, distribution of land to Adivasis has continued but partisan considerations have crept into the process.
Distribution of surplus land to Dalits and Adivasis is a policy which is accepted in principle by successive governments. However, they have been tardy in implementing the policy. As a result, large sections among them are still landless.
The land reform initiated by the first Communist government in 1957 did grave injustice to Adivasis. It treated the Adivasi who was in possession of forest land as the landlord and the settler from the plains who cultivated that land as tenant. The law thus became an instrument for dispossessing the Adivasi of his land.
The land reform essentially benefited the tenant-cultivators. It did not benefit Dalits because there were few tenants among them. Almost all of them were farm labourers. Consequently the reform did not improve their social or economic status.
At the time of Janu's 2001 agitation, Chandrabhan Prasad, the Dalit columnist, cited figures to show that Dalits and Adivasis in Kerala, the most socially advanced State, were actually worse off than their counterparts elsewhere in the country, including Uttar Pradesh, admittedly one of the most backward States. He pointed out that while 53.79 per cent of the Scheduled Castes in Kerala were landless, the corresponding figure for UP was a mere 38.76 per cent. Even the all-India average was only 49.06 per cent. A whopping 55.47 per cent of the Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Kerala were landless as against only 32.99 per cent in the country as a whole. UP's ST population is a negligible 0.1 per cent of the total. Even among the other sections of the population, landlessness was higher in Kerala ( 20.78 per cent) than in UP (15.03 per cent) and the country as a whole (19.66 per cent).
The extreme Left, which has been actively involved in some of the land agitations, has taken the initiative to form a front to launch am intensified movement for comprehensive land reform. It wants land reform to cover plantations, which were exempted last time. The focus of some recent agitations has been on lands under plantations.
The scene of the Chengara agitation is land under the control of a large plantation company.
According to the Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi, which leads the agitation, the company is holding on to the land even after expiry of the lease. Lands in Munnar and Ponmudi involved in some of the scandals that surfaced recently were part of big plantations.
The authorities remained silent spectators while the plantation owners sold leased lands to all and sundry.
The entry of the extreme Left raises the possibility of what has been a series of peaceful agitations evolving into a broad-based movement that can pose a threat to law and order. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 12, 2007
About 25,000 people have been squatting on a rubber plantation at Chengara in Pathanamthitta district since early August demanding that the government make good the promise of land made to them a year ago. So far the authorities have turned a blind eye to the agitation.
In Kuttanad, 250 landless families are up in arms against a co-operative society, which allegedly turned over to a tourist enterprise the land that the government had allotted to them.
At Nainankonam in Thiruvanathapuram district, villagers are getting restive again as their demands, which the government had conceded, are yet to be implemented fully. They had won the demands after a prolonged agitation.
Most of the landless people in the State are Dalits and Adivasis. This may be one reason why the political establishment and the media tend to ignore their agitations.
Dalits and Adivasis, who form only 11 per cent of the population, are a small segment of the social spectrum. They do not have sufficient numerical or economic strength to command the attention of the political parties.
The Adivasi leader, CK Janu, was able to draw attention to the plight of her people by staging a long agitation in the State capital in 2001. At that time the government agreed to give land to every landless Adivasi family.
When it failed to fulfil the promise, she and her followers occupied an abandoned plantation at Muthanga in 2003. They were ousted in a bloody police action. Subsequently the United Democratic Front (UDF) government distributed land to some Adivasi families. Under Left Democratic Front (LDF) rule, distribution of land to Adivasis has continued but partisan considerations have crept into the process.
Distribution of surplus land to Dalits and Adivasis is a policy which is accepted in principle by successive governments. However, they have been tardy in implementing the policy. As a result, large sections among them are still landless.
The land reform initiated by the first Communist government in 1957 did grave injustice to Adivasis. It treated the Adivasi who was in possession of forest land as the landlord and the settler from the plains who cultivated that land as tenant. The law thus became an instrument for dispossessing the Adivasi of his land.
The land reform essentially benefited the tenant-cultivators. It did not benefit Dalits because there were few tenants among them. Almost all of them were farm labourers. Consequently the reform did not improve their social or economic status.
At the time of Janu's 2001 agitation, Chandrabhan Prasad, the Dalit columnist, cited figures to show that Dalits and Adivasis in Kerala, the most socially advanced State, were actually worse off than their counterparts elsewhere in the country, including Uttar Pradesh, admittedly one of the most backward States. He pointed out that while 53.79 per cent of the Scheduled Castes in Kerala were landless, the corresponding figure for UP was a mere 38.76 per cent. Even the all-India average was only 49.06 per cent. A whopping 55.47 per cent of the Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Kerala were landless as against only 32.99 per cent in the country as a whole. UP's ST population is a negligible 0.1 per cent of the total. Even among the other sections of the population, landlessness was higher in Kerala ( 20.78 per cent) than in UP (15.03 per cent) and the country as a whole (19.66 per cent).
The extreme Left, which has been actively involved in some of the land agitations, has taken the initiative to form a front to launch am intensified movement for comprehensive land reform. It wants land reform to cover plantations, which were exempted last time. The focus of some recent agitations has been on lands under plantations.
The scene of the Chengara agitation is land under the control of a large plantation company.
According to the Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi, which leads the agitation, the company is holding on to the land even after expiry of the lease. Lands in Munnar and Ponmudi involved in some of the scandals that surfaced recently were part of big plantations.
The authorities remained silent spectators while the plantation owners sold leased lands to all and sundry.
The entry of the extreme Left raises the possibility of what has been a series of peaceful agitations evolving into a broad-based movement that can pose a threat to law and order. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 12, 2007
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