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Jan Satyagraha Yatra 2012 in Delhi

One Lakh People marching on foot from Gwalior to Delhi 2012 on 2nd October 2012

The Jan Satyagraha Samwad Yatra was started from Kanyakumari on 2nd October 2011 and has already covered eleven states and at the moment we are in Assam. We will be on the road for another 7 months before reaching the city of Gwalior. We still hope that the government will take positive steps to protect the land of farmers and redistribute land to the homeless and landless. We think this is the minimum that the government can do in support of the marginalized communities. We had one round of discussion in Raipur with the Rural Development Minister of India to explore the possibilities to address landlessness. We hope the Ministry will continue the dialogue and find a solution to the problem before we come to Gwalior. In the absence of a concrete proposal from the government to address this issue, one lakh people will be marching from 2nd October 2012 Gwalior to Delhi.

More than 2,50,000 farmers have committed suicide in the country, and more than 120 districts are in the grip of armed groups. There are hundreds of struggles emerging from the grass-root in order to protect land and livelihood resources. In such a situation people who believe in Gandhi, Vinoba, J.P, Marx, Ambedkhar, Lohia cannot sit quiet and watch the situation becoming worse. I am writing this letter to seek your support to make this historical non-violent action successful. I am sure you will understand that it is not easy for large number of marginalized landless people to come to Delhi and stay there until the government takes a decision in their interest. Without your support, such an action would be difficult. In Delhi, we will need space, water, food, medicines, etc for 100 000 people. We have no idea how long the marginalized people will stay in Delhi in order to make the government to act in their interest. We count on you and I hope your support will finally make this important action a success.

If you believe marching to Delhi is not the solution to the problem, you may kindly use your good office to talk to the people concerned and motivate them to act. The National Council for Land Reforms was formed five years back under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister but the honourable Prime Minister has not called even one meeting. The guidelines for Forest Rights Act of 2006 were framed in 2008 but the implementation on the ground is very poor. PESA, an old act in order to protect the Adivasis is being violated in every state. Large numbers of displaced people are still waiting for rehabilitation-People living in Metropolitan cities are also waiting for Justice regarding land problems or land issues. If democratically elected government will not act in their interest, who else can do that? I hope you will appreciate the need for people to walk to Delhi in order to demand justice as they have waited for many years before being pushed to undertake this action.

Rajagopal P.V.

Ekta Parishad,

2/3-A Jungpura-A, 2nd Floor, New Delhi – 110 014, India.

Email: delhi@ektaparishad.com / www.ektaparishad.com