‘’The land Acquisition Bill Movement is for well-being of farmers & change in the system & not against any Party’’

Mahatma Gandhiji used to say that, if you want to change the country, you have to change the village, unless the village achieves all-round development, till then the country wont achieve true development.

The development achieved by exploiting nature & human is never an eternal development. Such development would someday lead to destruction.

In the name of development, today we are burning lakhs of tons of coal, petrol, diesel as a fuel. Whatever fuel is being burnt that much amount of pollution is increased. The increasing pollution is increasing the number of different diseases.

Due to rise in diseases, day-by-day hundreds of new hospitals are being opened in our country. They are proving short. The increase in pollution has disturbed the balance of environment. 

In the year 2014, for many months the temperature in Delhi had gone up to 47.7 degrees, many poor people sleeping on footpaths had died because of this.

The rise in temperature is causing rise in sea-level. This is becoming a danger for whole world. 

In such conditions your govt. is bringing the Land acquisition Bill & thinking of acquiring farmers land to raise the industries.

It is understood that, one km. of land along both sides of the 63,974 km long rail line & one km. of land along both sides of the 92,851 km long highways, national highways of our country, one km. of land along both sides of the 1, 31,899 km long state highways would be acquired & your govt. is thinking to raise industrial corridors there. In this way more land is going to be acquired for industrial sector.

Also, these industrial companies would be given priority for obtaining water, electricity roads etc.

To one side, in order to increase the food production the farmers are short of electricity for their electricity pumps & to other side priority is given to industrial sector. This is not correct for an agro-based nation like India.

There must be a question ahead of you regarding day by day rise in unemployment, if industries are not increased, how will the youth get an employment?

If industries are not developed, then how will these unemployed population get an employment?  

After the independence, the steps taken for the development were wrong. Mahatma Gandhiji used to say, we should have considered village as a unit, make proper plans for the available land & water, increased the production of crops, and start agro-based industries, then unemployed youth would have got employment, food to eat in the village itself & would not have migrated to cities. But after independence, instead of considering village as a unit, cities were considered as a unit & multinational companies were called, which attracted the youth towards the cities. The cities grew like rising sea tides & now you can see problems in them.

This is not only a mere concept. You can send some knowledgeable person to study this. A village of 2500 population, had no work for their hands. No food for to feed. The youth were migrating to nearby cities for employment. In the same village, without consuming fuels like petrol, diesel, coal, only the rain water falling in the village was arrested, it was treated with different methods. Due to rise in water level inside earth, water was recharged in the earth & the water level increased. Planned the right use of water & land wisely.

The village which was thirsty in summer, due to rain water flowing out of village, 400 acres of land was lacking even a single crop, in the same village the farmers are taking double crops in a year. The village which saw 80 percent of population starving without food, is now sending 200 to 250 trucks of onions & vegetables to the outside market every year. Every year more than a crore rupee is earned by this village.

 The youth is getting employment on farms itself. The village which at one time was unable to produce 400 liters of milk, is sending out 5000 liters of milk because of proper planning of land & water. Everyday this village is earning 1 to 1.25 lakhs out of this. Youth is seen engaged in dairy farming.

 Due to rise in animal husbandry, the farms are getting good quality of    manure, which is yielding good amount of crops. The quality of land is also increasing due to this. Due to rise in use of water & development of agro-sector, the economy of village has changed. Due to this economic strength has rose, because of this the villager’s by their shramdan (free labor), self-confidence, raised different different projects worth crores of rupees. 

            Many times the government officials feel that, on the basis of grant, donations, ideal village can be developed. But only on the basis of money, we can’t develop ideal villages. We don’t say that the works that took place same should be copied everywhere in the country. Country’s geographical & social conditions are different, the development can be done accordingly. There is no harm in doing such type of works wherever possible.

            To create ideal village, the local leaders must possess qualities like pure conduct, pure thoughts, spotless life, sacrifice & power to consume offences. Simply by delivering speeches or taking grants, ideal village can’t be developed. Words & actions should go hand in hand in the leadership. There is lack of leadership in every village of our country. The development in the villages have stopped due to parties, leaders & indifferences created by them in villagers. Various political groups have emerged. Due to this the progress has stopped.

              Today also, there are many youngsters in the country willing to work with devotion. Find them & give them leadership training for 3 to 5 months & add them to villages to get the change. The training would not be from 11 to 4 but from 5 to 10 in the night. We must provide some remuneration for these volunteers for living.

                        We don’t say that govt. should not develop the industrial sector. The thought, industrial sector alone can make true development of the nation, is not correct.   

            Industrial & agriculture sector must be balanced. Attention must be paid on agriculture sector too while spending on industrial sector.

For last 68 years, the condition of farmers is like the dancing monkey & the juggler. In many parts of the country the farmers are committing suicides as they are not getting the amount spent to grow yield of crops, after selling the grown crops. The govt. must be sensitive on this issue. Today the farmers are increase the yield of crops with his experience, but there is lack of processing, in the process of sending the same in the foreign markets.

If the govt. conducts research, they would find that, by spending only 4 crore rupees on a village, in a span of 3 to 5 years, would create permanent employment to 1500 people on their own farms. Such kind of employment doesn’t exploit the nature, which will decrease the pollution.

The expenditure required to set-up industrial sector is many times more than the agriculture sector, to gain employment for 1500 people, by exploiting the nature pollution too rises. Your government’s thought of changing the future of nation by increasing the industries alone, is not that right.

Not today, but in 50/75/100/200 years to come, due to rising industrialization, the generation to come in 100/200 years will be facing the issues related to this. We feel that the govt. should not only consider 5 years span but of 500 years, while developing the industrial & agriculture sectors. After the independence, in last 68 years, govt. feels that the rising industrialization has solved the problem of unemployment, but in reality it has destroyed the environment. Who will & how will anyone pay the price of this?

After the independence, the funds spent on industrial sector, if were spent on agricultural sector & by increasing the crops & set-up agro-based industries related to them & tried to gain foreign markets for them then the unemployed youth would have got employment in the village itself & the amount farmers are getting today from the agricultural sector would have been more than that he received from the industrial sector.

The rising industrial sector has given us employment, but the rising population has become a concern for the cities. Along with, the way economy should have changed, has not been changed. Due to industrialization, all the sacred rivers are polluted by the industrial wastes. The dams constructed on these rivers which were providing drinking water to the cities, hasn’t remained safe. Many cities are facing the rise in diseases. The polluted water is destroying the crops. The govts.thought of thousands of hectares new industrialization, is going to pollute these sacred rivers water more. Day by day the river water will be more polluted, what will happen after 100 years?

Today we don’t find aquatic animals in the water. The polluted water from industrialization is killing them. Slowly after many tears we won’t find any aquatic species. In reality these aquatic species help us in cleaning the river & dam water. The poisonous water by industrialization, will extinguish the aquatic species slowly. Our industrialization is stripping off the right live for aquatic species.

Your govt. is thinking to construct new dams in the country for irrigation, which is a good thought. The dams constructed so far, are gradually filled every year by thousands of tons of mud carried by the rain water. Just as human lives for 90/95/100 years & die, in the same way these dams too would expire after 200/300/400 years’ of time. In this way the dams are going to be filled by the mud in 100/200/300/400 years of time. This not only mud but top soil. This is a wealth of every village, flown out of it. This is resulting in low yield of crops. If the dams are filled by this mud then what would be the condition of irrigation of farms? How are we going to produce electricity? How will huge cities get water from? How will industries work? These are the questions raised out of this. Neither it will be possible for the govt. nor the citizens to take this mud out of these dams. Also there won’t be any empty space to construct new dams. Therefore there is possibility that, the giant projects raised, depending on these dams, will be in danger.

Therefore considering village as a unit, it is necessary that, every drop of water falling in the village must be arrested. We can’t stop all the water flowing out of village, but we can stop the flowing mud. I am saying this on the basis of my experience of working in rural area for last 40 years.

I am happy to hear from Shi Narendra Modiji about four revolutions. White revolution for the milk, Green revolution for grains, Solar revolution for energy, Blue revolution for ocean, I feel, the longtime taken of ten months for saying this is not right. After gaining power if this was announced, would have shown some effects. Words are more but not supported by actions. Saint Kabirji said, words are sweeter & actions are lacking, then leave the words & perform the actions, then even poison would turn into amrita. 

If these revolutions were started as soon was the power gained, the bad effect on the Land Acquisition Bill would not have been as much as it is today. It is not good to see that, both Congress & BJP are wasting time in blaming each other, in spite of country facing many important issues. It shows that you all are more concerned about power than creating a new nation.

Many times, there are allegations against us, that our movements are against the govt. or any party or parties. Earlier also we have clarified that our movement is not against the govt. or any party or parties. This is a movement for change in the system. This movement is against the injustice done to farmers of this agrarian nation.  This movement is for well-being of farmers. This movement is against, letting the nation being taken to few industrialists, by wrong decision. I don’t want any vote, neither need anything from any one. My mission in life is, to serve. Being doing till today. Will be doing as long as there is life in my body.

Yours,

K. B. Alias Anna Hazare