Muzaffarpur in Bihar is the constituency of the Rural Development Minister. Journalists and activists were able to corner him on the issue of land reform and Janadesh during his last visit to the constituency. You may remember that the Rural Development Minister of India was deputed by the Prime Minister to talk to Ekta Parishad in October 2006. In his statement to the media in Muzafarpur he said that all the issues related to Janadesh will be solved before October 2007. Lokendra Bhai and Basant Bhai are designing a strong strategy to mobilise public opinion in Muzafarpur around Janadesh and keep pressurizing the minister on this particular issue.
A letter was written to Ms. Sonia Gandhi president of Indian National Congress Party. Her party is in power in India at the moment. The Human Resource Development Minister Mr. Arjun Singh who is a very senior member of the congress party has written a letter to Ms. Sonia Gandhi requesting her to find some time to talk to Ekta Parishad on issues related to Janadesh. We are waiting for her response.
Two rounds of meetings were held with the former Chief Justice of India P.N.Bhagawati. He is a very progressive person and in general agrees with the idea that the natural resources should be made available to the poor people of the country to fight poverty and deprivation. We have provided him with sufficient documents to take up the issues with the Prime Minister and convince him about the importance of the National Land Authority, fast track courts and a single window system to deal with land and livelihood problems. We hope the discussion between Justice Bhagawati and the Prime Minister will create a climate for future dialogue between Ekta Parishad and the authorities.
Mr.S.N.Subba Rao a senior gandhian met the Prime Minister on the 21st of April to draw his attention to Janadesh and related issues.
A letter was also sent to the Prime Minister by the Vice President of The European Parliament requesting him to look in to all the issues raised by Janadesh Process.
The President of India will be visiting the European Parliament soon. The Vice president of the European Parliament, Mr. Onesta, is going to place matters related to Janadesh to the President as well.
We have also been progressing state level action. The land commission and Ekta Parishad are collaborating well in the state of Bihar. In Orissa the Chief Secretary has agreed to clear the backlog related to land through village level meetings.
At the NGO meeting in Hyderabad, organized by COVA, there was an agreement to organise support rallies in all the thirty districts in Andhra Pradesh in the month of October. We are trying to contact organisations and individuals across the country to organise at least 400 district level rallies on 2nd of October in support of Janadesh 2007. We hope that action in 400 districts out of 607 districts in India should be large enough to create an impact. |
