21 years have elapsed but nothing has been done on delimitation, land act and forest rights to benefit Uttarakhandies says Kishore Upadhyay
The former Uttarakhand Congress chief n founder leader of VANADHIKAR ANDOLAN in Uttarakhand Kishore Upadhyay has claimed that the protest demonstration cum Dharna organised by him at Jantar Mantar a few days ago to attract the attention of the MPs and the central government to grant traditional forest rights to Uttarakhandies and enactment of a new land act to protect farm lands had a positive impact. He said that after the sit in protest of the activists of Vanadhikar ANDOLAN despite the official ban, the government was compelled to grant permission to hold protest demonstrations to agitating farmers demanding withdrawal of the three agricultural laws. Kindly recall that that due to the second Covid 19 wave, the government had imposed ban on holding of protest demonstration and meetings at Jantar Mantar. In a statement issued today the former Congressman chief of Uttarakhand and founder of Vanadhikar ANDOLAN has expressed optimism that the central and state governments will in the near future give due justice to the inhabitants depending on forests of the country.
Explaining the plights of Uttarakhand people, Kishore Upadhyay said that 93% portion of Uttarakhand is hilly region and 7% area a low land region or plains. In all approximately 72% land is under the jurisdiction of forest department. The farm lands are incessantly decreasing and as a result after some time, the inhabitants of Uttarakhand are likely to confront a challenging situation. Expressing his, apprehensions with regard to the delimitation exercise in the near future, Kishore Upadhyay said that the concept of hilly region for which Uttarakhand came into existence after so much of sacrifices, seems to be diminishing as the base of delimitation has been population not geographical measurement. Appealing to Uttarakhand’s youth n general masses to join hands for a relentless struggle to seek the traditional forest rights n fulfilment of basic genuine demands Kishore Upadhyay said, the opportune time has arrived when they should unify themselves and exert pressure on political parties to seriously work on a new concrete land act, forests rights and on delimitation issue, especially when the state assembly elections are round the corner. He catagorically said that twenty one years have already passed n nothing has been done on these pivotal issues.
The Vanadhikar ANDOLAN is seriously working on a strategy to mobilise people to relentlessly struggle on forest rights, delimitation and new land act. On the historic day on Martyr Sridev Suman, a meeting has been convened at Jaul Haon, in Tehri Garhwal to deeply deliberate on these significant issues to fix a date to commence the movement to get these demands implemented forthwith added Kishore Upadhyay.
