Hillele has received JAAG’s (Jameen Adhikar Andolan in Gujrat) Demand Draft that is addressed to Gujrat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi. We publish here the same.

The situation in Gujarat on the several fronts of livelihoods, land, agriculture, water, common property resources is today more serious than ever before. The reality today in Gujarat is that the big corporate houses are being gifted away large tracts of lands, of their choosing, privately held agricultural lands as well as common property resources of pastureland, wastelands and water bodies. While this is being done, those who are legally entitled to get land from the government, the dalits and the adivasis, are constantly and ruthlessly being denied their due. Prime agricultural land is being diverted to industry and the farmers have no say in deciding their future. The recent stir against the proposed Mandal-Bechraji SIR is one such case of anti-people projects in the garb of ‘development’. It can only bring mass poverty, destruction of whatever is left of rural farming and agriculture and environmental catastrophe. Moreover, the impact of such steps on the lives of women and children in particular – severe malnourishment, adverse health impacts, curtailment of educational opportunities, forced migration, and trafficking – have never been factored into the ‘development’ discourse, keeping them invisible and yet the first victims of
‘development’.

All this is happening in the name of so called development. This anti-people understanding of development is leading to ‘jobless growth’ and massive impoverishment, malnourishment and distress suicides. These cannot characterise any society or economy as ‘developed’, but rather would constitute backwardness of the highest order. Indeed, Gujarat’s 11th rank (out of 23) on human development indices is testimony to that.

In view of this, we the undersigned, members of civil society and social movements of Gujarat, demand the following:

1. The “Gujarat Special Investment Region Act 2009” is violative of
fundamental rights and therefore completely unacceptable to us and
should be scrapped altogether.
The Gujarat SIR Act 2009 under which the Mandal-Bechraji SIR is being
proposed and undertaken does not have any provisions for safeguarding the right to livelihoods, freedom to pursue occupations of their choice or their rights over the common and natural resources of the region like water, forests, pastures and clean air. The Act does not adhere to any fundamental rights, including the right to life and livelihood, their welfare, their rights to safeguard their culture, occupations and ways of life. Constitutionally mandated and elected bodies like the Gram Sabhas and Gram panchayats also do not find the right to represent their grievances. Such legislations would be unconstitutional and undemocratic.
Merely the act of the state assembly passing it does not make it constitutionally valid. Hence all actions since the notification of 14/05/2013 are unconstitutional, and to be considered null and void and to be withdrawn forthwith.

2. Stop de-commanding of the Narmada command areas.
The people of Gujarat have been promised Narmada dam waters for the last 50 years. The farmers have waited patiently for the Narmada waters, which promise to make agriculture more attractive to farmers. Now when the entire infrastructure which will bring water to the fields is in place, the Government of Gujarat has come with a project which takes away their water and gives it to industry. This is unacceptable to us. We call upon the Government of Gujarat to stop de-commanding of the Narmada command areas with immediate effect.

3. The Gujarat Irrigation and Drainage Act 2013 is a draconian piece of
legislation and severely violates fundamental rights and needs to be
withdrawn immediately.

The Gujarat Irrigation and Drainage Act 2013 is a draconian piece of legislation. According to the Act a farmer cannot install a borewell in his/her fields without government permission. The farmers will now need a licence to draw water from canals and the amount of water that can be drawn by a farmer will be decided by the government. Even the price of water used in the fields for irrigation will be fixed and government officials have been authorised to file cases against farmers
who break the law. The farmers will now need to declare the details of wells and ponds in their fields. This would make farming and agriculture, already suffering from anti-farm sector policies, a herculean task and would deter farmers from pursuing agriculture. This ought to be scrapped forthwith.

4. Declare a moratorium on GIDC’s land acquisition.

Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), has a huge land bank,
developed over the years through acquisition of land from farmers ostensibly for ‘public purpose’. Much of this land is currently unutilised, as has been pointed out by the CAG reports. Despite this, GIDC has continued to acquire land in several areas. Most often it resorts to veiled threats under which farmers are made to part with their land. These lands are then transferred to industrial houses for SEZs and SIRs which is illegal as it constitutes a change of purpose. GIDC’s data
on land ought to be first put in the public domain for scrutiny. Till such time we demand a complete moratorium of GIDC’s land acquisition.

5. The Government of Gujarat needs to come out with an Agriculture Policy.
Agriculture as a sector has been neglected and no proactive policy
measures, such as are made for industry, have been taken for agriculture.
The Government of Gujarat needs to come out with policy measures for
promotion and sustenance of agriculture (as against agri-business or agro-
industrial policy) as the primary economic sector even today.

6. The Government of Gujarat needs to come out with a comprehensive policy on the use, access to and maintenance of Common Property Resources (CPRs).

The Common Property Resources (CPRs) – forests, water bodies, pasture lands, wastelands, coasts, are crucial to the survival and well being of several communities in Gujarat. It provides primary and secondary sources of livelihoods to millions of landless families and communities. These have to be maintained and augmented (quantum and quality) in order for these people to survive. The rights of people over these resources (as against ‘government ownership) should
form the bedrock of this policy.

7. The Government of Gujarat needs to unambiguously demonstrate its will to give land to Adivasis and to landless Dalits under the provisions of the Forest Rights Act and Land Ceiling Act respectively.

The Government of Gujarat’s anti-people stance is most notably demonstrated in its utmost reluctance to give land to Adivasis and landless Dalits under the provisions of the Forest Rights Act and Land Ceiling Act respectively. Even when it claims on paper to have given the land, the actual possession of the land is never being enjoyed by the Dalits or Adivasis. The state machinery has not intervened on their side to ensure that possession of land actually materialises on the ground. We call upon the Government of Gujarat to take immediate steps to
implement these Acts in their right spirit.

8. Declare a moratorium on sale of common property resources.

Forests, pasture land (gauchar), wastelands (padtar), sea coasts are common property resources (against the convoluted understanding in government circles that it is of government ownership) on which many marginalised communities subsist, apart from them being absolutely necessary to maintain ecological balance. The coasts, now heavily privatised, are the sole means of subsistence for fisherfolk who depend on them for their livelihoods. The gauchars are especially important to the maldhari community and other nomadic and pastoralist communities whose sole means of livelihood, cattle rearing and breeding, depends on gauchars. We call upon the Government of Gujarat to announce a complete ban on sale of all common property resources. Rather, we
urge the government to invest resources to increase the quantum and quality of the common property resources such as forests, coasts and pasture lands.

9. The Government of Gujarat must come out with a White Paper on land
acquisitions in Gujarat from 1960 upto 2012.

The Government of Gujarat should come out with a white paper on land
acquisition, environment impact assessment, social impact assessment and a cost-benefit analysis of industrialisation (jobs created, nature of jobs, incomes earned, infrastructure, usage of this infrastructure …) in Gujarat since the formation of the state in 1960 up until 2012.

10. All land related information to be put in the public domain

The government also needs to bring in transparency in its land dealings with industry and other established sectors. It needs to give out accurate and updated data on land use, land acquired, land leased etc. Transparency is also required in the method of zeroing in on particular parcel/s of land and the method of arriving at pricing and compensation to the land owners/losers. We call upon the Government of Gujarat to take measures to bring all land related information in the public domain.

Anand Mazgaonkar Ashim Roy Bharat Jhala

Chunibhai Vaidya Deepti Raju Dev Desai

Dinesh Desai Dwarikanath Rath Gautam Thakar

Geeta Desai Prof. Ghanshyam Shah Hajabhai Kalotra

Harinesh Pandya Hasmukh Patel Ila Pathak

Indukumar Jani Imran Pathan Jaskand Chaudhary

Jayesh Patel Jayesh Patel Dr. Jimmy C. Dabhi

Dr. Kanubhai Kalsariya Karsanbhai Bharwad Kishor Chaudhary

Krishnakant Chauhan Lalji Desai Lallubhai Desai

Mahesh Pandya Manan Trivedi Meena Rajgor

Meenaxi Joshi Neeta Pandya Persis Ginwalla

Rajnibhai Dave Raju Deepti Rohit Prajapati

Prof. Rohit Shukla Sagar Rabari Sailesh Raval

Sanat Mehta Shaheda Saiyed Sonal Mehta

Sushila Prajapati Swati Desai Dr. Trupti Shah

Tushar Pancholi Vijay Bhartiya Vikrambhai Savai

On behalf of Jameen Adhikar Aandolan – Gujarat (JAAG)

Gujarat Lok Samiti Gujarat Sarvodaya Mandal AWAG

Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti Lok Andolan Gujarat Nirikshak

Naya Marag Bhumiputra Gujarat Khet Vikas Parishad

PUCL-Gujarat Paryavaran Mitra Gujarat Khedut Samaj

Jatan Azad Vikas Sangathan Vanvasi Vikas Manch

Rajpipla Seva Samaj Mandal Manviya Technology Forum

Bhavnagar Jilla Gram Bachao Samiti Dehgam Taluka Gram Swaraj Samiti
Jyoti Karmchari Mandal – Vadodara Shantigram Nirman Mandal – Tanchha

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From : Gautam Thaker – General Secretary – PUCL & IRHA (Gujarat)