Landless to hold survey on debt

Chandigarh, July 19

While the government says no record of debt of landless labourers was available, the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, today said it would conduct their own survey on indebtedness of landless labourers.

Lachhman Singh Sewewala, general secretary, said the union would start its own survey in all districts of with a week. "If the government is so ignorant about the indebtedness of labourers, we will tell them how deep the crisis is," he said.

He said the findings of the sample-based survey would be shared with the public. He said the present government was not the first to express ignorance about the crisis of landless labourers.

"The subsequent governments have given the same answer to our crisis in the past 15 years," the union leader said, adding that the government was now turning its back on the promises it made to landless labourers.

Serewala claimed that even Dalit labourers were not being given benefit of ongoing schemes like MGNREGA, post-metric SC scholarships, Atta-Dal etc.

The union announced to hold protests at all district headquarters from August 16. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had, last month, announced "waiver of crop loans of 8.75 lakh small and marginal farmers" but when it came to landless agricultural labourers, he claimed that his government didn’t have any record. Later, he proposed that a five-member committee should be constituted by the Speaker would look into the issues. — TNS

'Give surplus land to labourers'

The Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union alleged that the government had stopped the process to identify and resume surplus agricultural land under pressure of big landlords. Under the Punjab Land Reforms Act, 1972, the government had started the process of identifying agriculturists owning more than 17.5 acres - 32 acres if barren and without irrigation facilities. The union claimed that there was around 16.66 lakh acres of surplus land in the state, which should be distributed among landless farmers and labourers.