Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Jan 7: 'The government had, with the aim of simplifying the procedure of issuing title deeds under 'Deemed Forests' scheme, had formed committees headed by district conservator of forests two months back to dispose off applications of forest dwellers. However, this committee, since its inception, has not disposed off even a single file, thereby doing injustice to farmers. The state government is in hibernation, and it intends to ring death knell for the farmers of the state in the name of implementing Kasturirangan report and Deemed Forests scheme,' said Deepak Kumar Shetty, state vice president of Raita Yuva Morcha.

He was addressing a day-night protest that was held in the premises of Byndoor taluk special tahsildar's office on Tuesday January 6. Addressing the meeting, which was held under the aegis of Raita Sangha, Shetty said farmers living at the foot of Western Ghats have been deprived of any facilitis because of the 'Deemed Forest' rules and rigid restrictions governing successive schemes for regularization of illegal encroachments of government land. Our repeated pleas to simplify these rules have fallen on deaf years. This government has done gross injustice to the farmers. The government has been planning to confiscate land on which farmers and their ancestors had beenl living since centuries. I am prepared to go to jail in an effort to serve the interests of these farmers,' he asserted.

The fact that some of the leaders who participated in the protest have been facing allegation of usurping large tracts of land belonging to farmers and the government, puts question mark on the moral standing of the leaders leading this agitation.

In Yadthare village adjacent to Byndoor, a case in which 4.36 acres of land was taken over by a leader allegedly by furnishing false information to the court, is pending in the court. Several persons who have emerged as leaders at this agitation face the charge of annexing properties of farmers for real estate purposes in Byndoor, Uppunda, Taggarse, Ganganadu etc Therefore there is a question on the genuineness of concerns for farmers being expressed by these leaders at the protest meeting.

BJP district unit general secretary, Gururaj Shetty, secretary, B S Suresh Shetty, BJP assembly constituency unit president, B M Sukumar Shetty, and a number of other leaders were present. Over 500 farmers with green shawls on their shoulders took out a procession in the streets of Byndoor, raising slogans against the state government, and sitting in protest demonstration in front of the office of the special tahsildar here thereafter. The protesters have asserted that they will not budge from the spot till the tahsildar and deputy forest conservator visit theem and accept their memorandum. They also said that they are determined to lock up the divisional forest office and continue the protest demonstration without any break through days and nights till this happens.